With financing the major focus at the United Nations climate change conference, Cardinal Pietro Parolin delivered directly to world leaders Pope Francis’ appeal that weal-thy nations use the upcoming 2025 Jubilee Year to forgive debts “as a matter of justice.”
Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, made the comments on behalf of the pope Nov. 13 during the second and final day of the World Leaders Climate Action Summit at the COP29 climate conference. Head of the nine-person Holy See delegation, Parolin emphasized that increasing financial assistance for developing nations to combat the effects of climate change is a crucial priority for the pope.
A central focus at COP29 is establishing a new target for climate financing from deve-loped nations to developing ones to replace the $100 billion annual goal set 15 years ago and reached in 2022. As much as $500 billion to $1 trillion annually could be required to fully fund climate actions at scale, according to a review by the World Resources Institute. Developing nations alongside climate activists have called for financing to come in the form of grants, rather than loans that further deepen debts.
“Efforts should be made, in particular, to find solutions that do not further undermine the development and adaptive capacity of many countries that are already burdened with crippling economic debt,” Parolin said. “Indeed, ecological debt and foreign debt are two sides of the same coin, mortgaging the future.”
Parolin then repeated a request Francis made in May ahead of the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year “directed to the more affluent nations …that they acknowledge the gravity of so many of their past decisions and determine to forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to repay them. More than a question of generosity, this is a matter of justice.”