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Pope Francis asserts 'right of the environment' in speech to UN Pope Francis demands UN respect rights of environment over 'thirst for power'
(about 4 hours later)
Pope Francis asserted that the environment – as well as humanity – has rights, in a dramatic rethinking of the relationship between people and the Earth at the United Nations on Friday. The pope demanded justice for the weak and affirmed the rights of the environment on Friday in a forceful speech to the United Nations that warned against “a selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity”.
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Francis told the UN general assembly that the environment should enjoy the same rights and protections as humanity. A day after making history by becoming the first pope to address Congress, Francis for the first time asserted that nature – as well as humanity – had rights.
“It must be stated that a true ‘right of the environment’ does exist,” Francis said.“It must be stated that a true ‘right of the environment’ does exist,” Francis said.
The declaration gives nature far greater primacy in Catholic church thinking than before, deepening the traditional responsibility of humans to serve as stewards of the environment. An attack on the environment was an assault on the rights and living conditions of the most vulnerable, he said, warning that at its most extreme, environmental degradation threatened humanity’s survival.
The justification, the pope said, was clear: humanity and nature were so interconnected that threats to the environment inevitably rebounded, diminishing the rights and living conditions of the most vulnerable in society. “Any harm done to the environment, therefore is harm done to humanity,” Francis said. “The ecological crisis, and the large-scale destruction of biodiversity, can threaten the very existence of the human species,” he concluded.
“Any harm done to the environment, therefore is harm done to humanity,” the pope concluded. The speech, delivered in Spanish to an overflowing hall, came on the eve of a UN conference intended to adopt 17 new goals for a more sustainable model of development, and during the last stretch of negotiations on a deal to fight climate change.
It was the first time Francis had explicitly said that the environment had a “right” that equated it to humanity. The pope’s appearance, on the second leg of the pontiff’s tour of the US, prompted a huge security crackdown in Manhattan. Traffic was halted for blocks, while outside the UN, delegates and workers began lining up before dawn to try to get a glimpse of the pope.
In his 180-page encyclical on the environment, released in July, which laid out his thinking on the environment and humanity’s duty to it, Francis talked about the rights of individuals, the poor, and of future generations, but not of the Earth itself. Sections of Francis’s speech were clearly aimed at the assembled world leaders and UN staff, raising the bar for the international community in tackling injustice and poverty.
The pope’s address, on the second leg of his visit to the US, was delivered as the United Nations prepares to adopt 17 sustainable development goals. While praising the UN for its work – Francis took care to mention secretaries, maintenance people and other unsung workers during a brief meeting with staff before the address – he urged the institution to aim for a higher standard.
Those goals, while not explicitly rooted in environmental protection – were intended to promote less harmful forms of economic development. Without the United Nations’ efforts to protect peace and human rights, “mankind would not have been able to survive the unchecked use of its own possibilities”, Francis said.
“The misuse and destruction of the environment are also accompanied by a relentless process of exclusion,” Francis told the UN. But he said that international institutions needed to do more, counselling the UN against complacency, or what Francis dismissed as “idle chatter”.
“A selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged, either because they are differently abled (handicapped), or because they lack adequate information and technical expertise, or are incapable of decisive political action,” he said. The setting of laudable targets on its own was not enough to deal with the problems of the poor. “We need to ensure that our institutions are truly effective in the struggle against all these scourges,” the pope said.
The pope’s encyclical on the environment called on the world’s rich nations to begin paying their “grave social debt” to the poor and take concrete steps on climate change. Related: The pope's address to the United Nations: an annotated reading
As the encyclical made evident, the pope believes that the unrestrained capitalism of the current economic order is trampling upon the rights of the poor and the week, and destroying the environment. In the wide-ranging speech, the pope alluded to the recent nuclear deal with Iran (which he described as “proof of the potential of political goodwill”) and reaffirmed girls’ right to education. Among those in the audience was the Nobel laureate Malala Yousefzai, the Pakistani education campaigner who was shot and injured by the Taliban in 2012.
Unrestrained capitalism encouraged what he called a “culture of waste” in which the poorest and weakest were seen as disposable. Francis also took a swipe at international financial institutions – though not by name – saying that banks needed to reform to make the world more equitable.
But Francis went even further in his speech to the UN on Friday by expanding the notion of protection from humanity to nature. He expressed deep concern for the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, where they and other religious groups, have been “forced to witness the destruction of their places of worship, their cultural and religious heritage” and been forced to flee or face death or enslavement.
Such a change in thinking – backed up by action – was crucial to protect the rights of humanity and nature, the pope told world leaders. In every area of conflict – including Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and the Great Lakes region in Africa – Francis said it was essential that human beings “take precedence over partisan interests, however legitimate the latter may be”.
Sacrifice the environment, and wrongs against the weak and the poor were bound to follow, he said. Francis’s inclusion of Ukraine is noteworthy because he has been gently criticized for not speaking forcefully enough against Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.
“Economic and social exclusion is a complete denial of human fraternity and a grave offense against human rights and the environment,” he said. Although the speech was overwhelmingly progressive in its tone, Francis also made it clear that he upholds the Catholic church’s doctrine on abortion, calling for the “absolute respect for life in all its stages”. The pope also invoked “moral law written in nature itself” to insist on the “natural difference” between men and women.
Francis returned to the theme with a warning that the large-scale destruction of biodiversity could “threaten the very existence of the human species”. But his strongest words were reserved for his defence of “this common home of all men and women”.
Francis was careful to quote his predecessor, Pope Benedict, saying: “Man does not create himself. He is spirit and will, but also nature.” Francis had declared himself a powerful force against global poverty, social injustice and climate change with the release of his encyclical on the environment in June.
But in his choice of phrasing, the pope may have opened up a theological debate over whether his views represent a break from his predecessors, or whether they were consistent with previous strong statements about the need to protect the environment. With his moral authority and charisma, the pope has helped reframe climate change from an arcane set of negotiations into an issue with sweeping moral implications.
Some experts believe that Francis’s encyclical already went far beyond Benedict’s view of the environment, which he saw – according to Professor Clive Hamilton – “as essential to God’s plan for humanity”. Publication of the 180-page encyclical in June injected a much-needed sense of momentum into preparations for upcoming climate change negotiations in Paris, and launched a frenzied organising effort by Catholic and other religious groups.
When Benedict spoke of the need to protect the environment, it was because the effects of its degradation were so damaging to humanity, and that exploitation of the Earth could inspire people to exploit one another. As the encyclical made evident, the pope believes that the unrestrained capitalism of the current economic order is trampling upon the rights of the poor and the weak, and destroying the environment.
Francis, in contrast appears to be saying that the environment is more than a necessary tool for survival. It is, in fact, one with humanity, and therefore in possession of a right. Such economic practices encouraged what he called a “culture of waste” in which the poorest and weakest were seen as disposable.
At the conclusion of his 40-minute speech, he said: “This common home of all men and women must also be built on the understanding of a certain sacredness of created nature.” But while the encyclical referred to the rights of individuals, the poor, and future generations, it made no such claims for the Earth itself.
In his address to the UN, the pope deployed even stronger language, implying that the environment is not merely a necessary tool for human survival, but an element of the same creation, and therefore in possession of rights.
“We Christians, together with the other monotheistic religions, believe that the universe is the fruit of a loving decision by the Creator, who permits man respectfully to use creation for the good of his fellow men and for the glory of the Creator; he is not authorized to abuse it, much less to destroy it,” he said.
Sacrifice the environment, and wrongs against the weak and the poor were bound to follow, he said. “The misuse and destruction of the environment are also accompanied by a relentless process of exclusion,” Francis told the UN.
“A selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged,” he said.
For Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, the pope has proved a formidable ally in the faltering efforts to reach a deal to fight climate change. After his address, the swell of optimism was almost palpable among those who hope he can inject fresh momentum to the Paris talks.
“At the end of the day negotiators are human beings. At the end of the day world leaders are human beings,” said Rachel Kyte, the World Bank’s climate envoy, after the address .
“Pope Francis has once again reminded world leaders that alleviating poverty and preserving the environment are part of the same struggle,” Greenpeace said in a statement.
Jimmy Burns, a papal biographer, said the UN offered Francis an important platform to address a global audience as “the world’s most popular spiritual leader, and focus the attention of world leaders on the need for action beyond words”.
“It also contained an alert call on world powers at the security council for their failure to agree on a peaceful settlement in the Middle East, while holding up the nuclear agreement between the western powers and Iran as an example of constructive diplomacy,” Burns said.