Hongkong: Asian Bishops have approved and signed the petition promoted by the Global Climate Catholic Movement, a network that connects a number of organizations in view of the World Conference of Paris on climate, to be held in December 2015.
As Fides learns, the petition was discussed and approved at a recent meeting of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), held recently in Hong Kong. The text urges world leaders to adopt an ambitious agenda to defend the earth, to stop climate change and, as reported in a note of the FABC, support the appeal launched by Pope Francis in the encyclical “Laudato sì” for an “ecological conversion”, urging world leaders to agree on a strategy to keep the increase in the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
During the meeting the Asian Bishops expressed concern over “the serious risk of climate change”, citing unusual weather events across Asia, evident in recent years, which especially affect the poorest and most vulnerable. Among them, the Bishops mentioned heat waves and drought in countries like India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, which was even forced to resort to water rationing. On the other hand, more and more powerful and destructive typhoons hit Southeast Asia, especially the Philippines.
The meeting stressed the damage and human suffering caused by the destruction of the environment, citing phenomena like indiscriminate and irresponsible deforestation. All these phenomena, concluded the Bishops, generate a mass of “environmental refugees”, refugees who have lost everything because of natural disasters and seek safer places to live.