Pope to issue encyclical on the environment ahead of Paris summit

Pope Francis, known for his commitment to environmental concerns, said he will issue an encyclical, or letter to all bishops around the world, on the environment in June or July, in an effort to help the Paris climate change talks succeed. He said “man has gone too far” in abusing nature, requiring leaders to show more courage in negotiations to seal a global pact on reducing carbon emissions that cause climate change. “Let’s hope that governments will be more courageous in Paris than they were in Lima,” the Pope told reporters, referring to the pact reached by countries in the Peru conference that seeks to limit global warming to no more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, averting what could be potentially catastrophic damage to Earth’s climate system by the turn of the century.

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