The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP28, will be the 28th United Nations Climate Change conference, held from 30 November until 12 December 2023.
The Lead Bishop for Environmental Issues for the Bishops’ Conference, Bishop John Arnold, wrote to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in October, enclosing a copy of Pope Francis’ recent apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum. Highlighting how the Catholic community plays its part in addressing the global climate crisis, Bishop Arnold appealed to Mr Sunak to take further climate action and better champion existing action taking place across civil society.
Acknowledging that this is a global crisis, and that achieving a sustained reduction in carbon emissions will only happen with coordinated action at international level, Bishop Arnold asked Mr Sunak’s Government to assume a “real global leadership role” to ensure that commitments made at COP meetings are kept. These outcomes will be key to warding off what the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has called a looming “climate catastrophe”. The Catholic Bishops Conference Plenary in November echoed Pope Francis’s call for our political leaders to take decisive action at COP 28 and to create energy transition targets that are efficient, obligatory and readily monitored, and we ask them to consider how such targets can be enforced.
The COP28 climate summit will take place at the end of what is set to be the hottest year on record. CAFOD are asking everyone to join their campaign to call for leaders to take action. We are also encouraged to share the messages in Laudato Si and Laudate Deum with MPs and others involved in decision making.
If you would like to get more involved with the Diocese of Plymouth’s work on the environment, please get in touch with caritas@prcdtr.org.uk