By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Oct. 13, 2021: Jesuit Father Thomas J. Reese, a leading American journalist, suggests that Pope Francis should send Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as his representative to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
The Conference of Parties, or COP26, is scheduled to meet October 31-November 12 at Glasgow, Scotland.
“I have a suggestion: Give Greta the Pope’s chair at the meeting. Make her part of the Vatican delegation to COP26 with full diplomatic credentials so she can go anywhere, attend any meeting and speak out for the children of the world,” says Father Rees’ column in the National Catholic Reporter, a US news portal.
The 75-year-old former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America says no explanation was given for the Pope’s decision to stay away from the conference.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of State, the highest-ranking prelate in the Vatican, will represent the Holy See at COP26.
Observing that the Pope’s decision is a reversal of earlier plans, Father Rees noted that some reporters had speculated it was for health reasons since the Pope had colon surgery in July. “But that did not stop him from visiting Austria and Slovakia in September,” the Jesuit points out.
“Earlier this month he joined scientists and religious leaders to ‘plead with the international community, gathered at COP26, to take speedy, responsible and shared action to safeguard, restore and heal our wounded humanity and the home entrusted to our stewardship’.”
Meanwhile Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg has been critical of world leaders’ response to the climate crisis. At an October 5 youth climate summit in Milan, Italy, the 18-year-old climate activist accused them of being all talk and no action.
“Build back better, blah, blah, blah,” she said in a clear reference to US President Biden. European leaders’ empty rhetoric also got panned. “Green economy, blah, blah, blah. Net-zero by 2050, blah, blah, blah. Climate-neutral, blah, blah, blah. This is all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words, words that sound great but so far has led to no action.”
“Perhaps (the Pope) has been listening” to Thunberg and “decided to stay outside the meeting and with the marginalized rather than participate in the “blah, blah, blah. Leave that to Cardinal Parolin, a professional diplomat,” Father Rees says.
“Let Parolin be the diplomat; let Greta be Greta.”
According to the Jesuit, international meetings have insiders and those on the margins. “Inside the meeting rooms and staying at fancy hotels are the government officials: foreign ministers, prime ministers, presidents and heads of state. Outside are the NGOs, faith groups, demonstrators and activists who stay wherever they can.”
The 26 Conference of Parties, he says, will be much the same with an estimated 30,000 people descending on Glasgow for the annual meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, established in 1992 at the first Rio Earth Summit.
“Around 200 countries are parties to this convention, and they will be represented by top government officials, including U.S. President Joe Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other world leaders,” the Jesuit explains.
It was at the 2015 COP21 meeting in Paris that governments agreed to cut their carbon emissions to deal with global warming. This year’s meeting will review what progress countries have made in fulfilling their promises in the Paris climate agreement and decide what additional actions need to be taken.
But it would be nice to get Greta into the room so she could stick it to world leaders, suggests the Jesuit author.
Asserting that “enough ‘blah, blah, blah,” Father Rees points out that the children of the world demand action that protects their futures. “That means fulfilling the commitments made at Paris for reducing carbon emissions and helping poorer countries in the transition to a green economy.”