Update on Vatican urges action on climate change

The Vatican Science Academy will urge Christians to take action on climate change because it threatens the world's poor.

The Academy is being addressed on the issue by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Next month the Pope is due to deliver an Encyclical, an official statement, on the dangers of heating the climate.

It may be controversial among Catholic conservatives in the US, many of whom say climate change is entirely natural.

But Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sondoro, who heads the Academy, told BBC News that Christians were obliged to be stewards of the Earth and protect the poor - which meant taking action to safeguard the climate.

He said the oil industry was fomenting distrust of science in the US because it did not want society to change.

The Vatican conference "Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity" is being held at the Academy, a gracious villa in gardens behind St Peter's Basilica.

It comprises 20 religious leaders, 20 academicians and 20 scientists, including Nobel prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen and former Royal Society President Lord Rees.

Bishop Sondoro said the Academy first raised questions about climate change 25 years ago. Nineteen years ago the advisory body, which has a majority of non-Catholic scientists, warned of the risks of abrupt climate change.

The Church is hoping to will make an impact in a year of key UN meetings on Sustainable Development Goals, development finance and climate

Bishop Sondoro says Christians are obliged to be stewards of the Earth

The Encyclical is expected to describe action to cut emissions as "a moral and religious imperative, highlighting the intrinsic connection between respect for the environment and respect for people - especially the poor, children, and future generations".

The Pope is hoping to build agreement among all religions on the moral obligation to protect the environment.

Bishop Sondoro said the Encyclical would not be the highest level of proclamation from the Pope, which is reserved for issues of Faith.

But he said it was important for all the world's 1.2 billion Catholics to take it seriously. If any Catholic wanted to ignore it they would need "very good reasons - based not on personal or political opinion, but on science."

For some Catholics, this may prove an unwelcome Papal intervention into a highly-politicised subject.

But the aid agency Cafod said their poll with YouGov showed the vast majority (70%) of Catholics say their community will heed the message of the Pope on climate change.

Whether it will prove persuasive for American Republican lawmakers - around a third of whom are Catholic - is yet to be seen.