“We welcome Pope Francis’ intervention at this critical time, not least because we, in concert with concerned investors, recognise that time is running out to restrict warming to well below 2°C. We must forego business-as-usual protocols and short-term market-driven goals or face environmental and financial ruin of catastrophic proportions.Oil and gas companies have a crucial role to play in transitioning to low-carbon economy but must today collectively take those hard decisions in the wake of determined investor and public pressure, and unambiguous scientific evidence. 

“ In this regard, it is important that many of the world’s largest publicly-traded oil and gas companies and many of the world’s largest investors have endorsed carbon pricing regimes, in whatever form they take, that are both ‘reliable’ and ‘economically meaningful,’ in service of the goal of keeping global warming at 2°C and below.

“Critically, asset owners with trillions of dollars under management are also calling for company disclosures of meaningful and material information on plans and investments in the energy transition.  Similar to many existing shareholder resolutions, the investors are calling for TCFD-aligned disclosures, including the impact of a 2°C scenario and below.”

1) Pope Francis declares we face a “Climate Emergency”, hinting at support for the demands of the Extinction Rebellion protests:

“Faced with a climate emergency, we must take action accordingly, in order to avoid perpetrating a brutal act of injustice towards the poor and future generations.”

2) Pope Francis calls for a “Radical Energy Transition”, in line with recent speeches (June 2018 and May 2019) in which he criticized “the continued search for new fossil fuel reserves” of the oil and gas companies and stated that “Fossil fuels should remain underground”:

“In our meeting last year, I expressed the concern that ‘civilization requires energy, but energy use must not destroy civilization’. Today a radical energy transition is needed to save our common home”. 

3) Pope Francis makes his first explicit call to take action in line with the 1.5C goal:

“A significant development was the release of the ‘Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). That Report clearly warns that effects on the climate will be catastrophic if we cross the threshold of 1.5°C outlined in the Paris Agreement goal. The Report warns, moreover, that only one decade or so remains in order to achieve this confinement of global warming.”

4) Pope Francis refers to the youth climate mobilizations, at the same time that students from Fridays For Future Rome demonstrated in the Vatican demanding “Dear Oil CEOs: listen to the Pope”:

“Future generations stand to inherit a greatly spoiled world. Our children and grandchildren should not have to pay the cost of our generation’s irresponsibility. Indeed, as is becoming increasingly clear, young people are calling for change.”

Extracts from Mary Robinson’s Vatican speech can be found here.