Pope Francis: we need to act on the Paris pact now

Pope Francis has called on the 196 countries that signed the Paris climate change agreement to follow up on their commitments immediately, while taking into account the needs of the world’s poorest people.

Speaking on Sunday in front of tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square for his noon address, the pontiff said implementing the deal would require a “concerted commitment and a generous dedication on the part of all”.

COP21 saw the signing on Saturday of a landmark agreement that brings together rich and poor nations for the first time in fighting climate change.

The accord includes a legally binding pledge to keep global warming to below 2°C – and a more ambitious goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

Pope Francis, who earlier this year urged the world’s 2 billion Catholics to take action to combat climate change, said: “I exhort the entire international community to move forward urgently along the path that has been taken, in a sign of solidarity.”

He added that he hoped attention would particularly be paid to the “most vulnerable populations”.

In May, Pope Francis issued a controversial encyclical on the environment that called on people to change their lifestyles and energy consumption to avert “unprecedented destruction of the ecosystem”. He warned that failure to act would have “grave consequences” for all of us.

Image: Pope Francis celebrates a mass in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, December 12, 2015. REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito.