Pope to weigh in on climate change action

A senior Vatican official has launched an attack on fossil fuels and urged wealthy nations to slash their carbon emissions, in a sign that Pope Francis will aggressively push for climate change action in a keenly anticipated document on the environment due as early as June.

"Today, the ever-accelerating burning of fossil fuels that powers our economic engine is disrupting the earth's delicate ecological balance on an almost unfathomable scale," Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, a member of the Pope's inner circle, told a conference in the city-state.

"The wealthiest countries, the ones who have benefited most from fossil fuels, are morally obligated to push forward and find solutions to climate-related change and so protect the environment and human life," he added.

Although Pope Francis has already signalled his concerns about the impact of climate change, his upcoming "encyclical" letter - the most important form of teaching by a Catholic pontiff - is expected to be much more detailed.

It is the first of its kind to be entirely dedicated to the environment.

UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, who met privately with Pope Francis on Tuesday, said the Pope had told him the encyclical was in the process of being translated and could be ready in June.

"It will convey to the world that protecting our environment is an urgent moral imperative and a sacred duty for all people of faith and people of conscience," Mr Ban said.

The document is being prepared as coal, oil and gas companies face mounting public pressure ahead of a UN summit in Paris in December, where world leaders are due to seal a global climate change agreement.

It is unclear how much influence the papal encyclical might have on the world's 1.2bn Catholics, let alone the Paris meeting. But some countries are already pressing for the climate deal to include a deadline for phasing out of the use of fossil fuels some time this century.

In a sign of what can be expected in the encyclical, Cardinal Turkson, who authored an early draft of the document, suggested it was a sin for "humans to degrade the integrity of earth by causing changes in its climate".

The cardinal has previously been instrumental in trying to engineer more dialogue between the Vatican and the resources sector.

In 2013 he met senior mining industry executives including Mark Cutifani, of Anglo American, and Sam Walsh, of Rio Tinto, in a "day of reflection on mining".

Mr Cutifani has suggested mining can be seen as a benefit if church leaders better understand its activities and the likely impact when new projects are developed.

He and other executives also met the Archbishop of Canterbury in London in October.

The looming publication of the encyclical - which Vatican officials confirmed was finished and being translated ahead of a likely release in June - has triggered huge anticipation among climate activists and scientists ahead of the Paris summit.

But it is also raising concerns among US groups that question climate change policies, such as the Heartland Institute, which sent representatives to Rome this week.

The group's president, Joseph Bast, said in a statement that the Holy Father was being "misled by 'experts' from the UN who have proven unworthy of his trust".

"Humans are not causing a climate crisis on God's green earth," Mr Bast said.

"The science is not settled, and global warming is not a crisis. The world's poor will suffer horribly if reliable energy - the engine of prosperity and a better life - is made more expensive and less reliable by the decree of global planners."

Pope Francis is expected to continue to press for action on climate change after the release of his encyclical. He will make an address to the UN general assembly in September, and on the same trip will speak to the US Congress, where Republicans have resisted US President Barack Obama's efforts to cut carbon emissions.

Additional reporting by James Wilson in London

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