Pope Francis to host major conference on climate change

Pope Francis will host a major summit on April 28 entitled "Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity: The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Development."

span style="line-height: 15.8599996566772px;">MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - The conference will feature famous American economist, Jeffrey Sachs, who is the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. The U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, will be giving the opening address. The world's leading climate scientists are expected to attend the conference on climate change, together with participants from major world religions, as they aim to elevate the debate on the moral dimensions of protecting the environment in advance of the papal encyclical.

Pope Francis' attendance is just one of his many goals in advocating environmental conservation. He has been very vocal about his support to helping out solve environmental issues. According to the Pope, acting on climate change is essential to faith. He describes destruction of nature as "a modern sin."

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The much-anticipated encyclical by the Pope on the environment will be released this summer. Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana will also be speaking at the summit. He is a top Vatican official leading the drafting process of the Pope's encyclical on the environment.

People are looking forward to what Pope Francis has to say to the United States Congress about the issue of climate change, as he will go meet with them in September during his visit to America.

According to the Vatican, the summit will be highlighting the intrinsic connection between respect for the environment and respect for people. This focuses especially on the excluded, the poor, the children and future generations, and the human trafficking and modern slavery victims. The one-day conference is expected to help create a global movement across all religions for sustainable development and climate change for 2015 and beyond.
 
After Pope Francis expressed disappointment with the Lima climate talks, he promised to increase pressure on world leaders. He hopes to influence the climate talks happening at the end of the year in Paris, through his encyclical.

Last year, the Pope expressed numerous times about the necessity and morality of addressing the problem in climate change. This time, Pope Francis hopes to influence the people during the Paris summit to take action and make more people aware of the state of our climate.

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