COP28: will the historic presence of the Pope impact the climate negotiations?
Pope Francis' teams created a surprise by announcing that he will be present in Dubai from December 1 to 3, for a series of interviews and speeches focused on the ecological transition. It is on the occasion of the United Nations climate negotiations which will be marked by the historic presence of an elected official from Rome.
This is a first since the launch of the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP) in 1995. Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, will participate in the COP28 meetings which open on November 30 2023 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). For three days, the Vatican's environmental diplomacy plans private bilateral meetings, the inauguration of the "Pavilion of Faith" on the green site of Expo City in Dubai as well as a "key speech" to representatives of 194 countries and civil society organizations (CSOs) from all continents.
According to the papal press, this event is decisive for the Bishop of Rome because it will involve “bringing to fruition an international agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions” . This is the key to all the tensions between the nations of the north and the south, notably over who pays the bill for pollution and how to succeed in the energy transition. Aware of the divisions and injustice often orchestrated by these issues for many decades already, Pope Francis wants, through his presence in the Emirati economic capital, to advocate equity and encourage consensus.
For the moment, there is nothing to indicate that white smoke will emerge from the negotiations between Europe, America, Oceania, Asia and Africa at the end of this apostolic visit. But it is clearly welcome within the host kingdom since rather in October 2023, the sovereign pontiff received at the “Holy See” Sultan Al-Jaber (the president of COP28) with whom they reflected on the idea of adopt a “detailed action plan” to implement the Paris Agreement signed in 2015 during COP21.
Africa at the heart of the Vatican's environmental diplomacy
As a reminder, this text, neglected by most of its signatories, plans to limit the increase in temperature to 1.5°C. This is the very essence of the controversy surrounding the financing of climate resilience in developing countries by major polluting countries. And in this labyrinth, the African nations are the forgotten ones. We should therefore expect a papal message recommending that world leaders take urgent measures to protect biodiversity, accelerate the development of clean energies and involve youth in the ecological transition.
In Dubai, African countries will undoubtedly be the most attentive to Pope Francis, who made a regional tour in February 2023. In Kinshasa for example, the Argentine prelate was taken to task by environmentalists who expected him to denounce the major gas and oil projects underway in the Congo Basin. But he made up for his silence a little later in the second half of this year by publishing the encyclical Laudate Deum (Praise God, Editor's note) in which he condemns pollution by multinationals and warns against "the collapse of the earth » .
