“Praise God”: What does Laudate Deum mean for Aotearoa New Zealand’s climate action?

On St. Francis of Assisi Day this year, Pope Francis released an apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum (‘Praise God’), as a follow-up to Laudato Si’. Laudate Deum is a strong call for climate action in line with its predecessor. Pope Francis lays out the stark realities of climate change, explaining the scientific and faith-based rationale for climate action, and discussing the importance of multilateralism and an integrated approach. We strongly encourage you to read it for yourself; this article explains a couple of paragraphs we think are particularly relevant to our focus on reducing Aotearoa New Zealand’s emissions.

Taking responsibility for our actions (Paragraph 9)

In an attempt to simplify reality, there are those who would place responsibility on the poor, since they have many children, and even attempt to resolve the problem by mutilating women in less developed countries. As usual, it would seem that everything is the fault of the poor. Yet the reality is that a low, richer percentage of the planet contaminates more than the poorest 50% of the total world population, and that per capita emissions of the richer countries are much greater than those of the poorer ones. How can we forget that Africa, home to more than half of the world’s poorest people, is responsible for a minimal portion of historic emissions?

New Zealand loves to talk about how we “punch above our weight”, be it on the sporting field, in science, or internationally. However, we must acknowledge that we punch far above our weight in the wrong way when it comes to emissions – we rank the fifth-highest in emissions per capita of the most industrialised countries. People opposed to climate action love to argue that bigger countries in the developing need to pull their weight, but in 2019, the bottom 50% of the world population were responsible for 12% of global emissions while the top 10% emitted 48% of the global total according to the study Pope Francis is referring to. Climate action across the globe has been grossly inadequate, and it is utter hypocrisy of us to lay the blame at the feet of poorer countries while we have some of the highest emissions per person of any country.

This reality becomes clearer through the lens of Catholic social teaching. Our principle of Distributive Justice – Te Tika ka Tohaina teaches that resources and opportunities should be allocated to where they are needed. If we consider global emissions through the lens of this principle, it becomes apparent that emissions reductions should be allocated more to countries like Aotearoa that emit the most, rather than serving to further deprive those who have the least, and already emit the least, such as our Pacific neighbours.

There is cause for hope (Paragraph 70)

Nonetheless, every little bit helps, and avoiding an increase of a tenth of a degree in the global temperature would already suffice to alleviate some suffering for many people. Yet what is important is something less quantitative: the need to realize that there are no lasting changes without cultural changes, without a maturing of lifestyles and convictions within societies, and there are no cultural changes without personal changes.

It is easy to be swept away in doom and gloom when we are confronted with the overwhelming scientific consensus and recent news on climate change. However, this paragraph especially gives us hope that we can make a meaningful difference. Firstly, as Pope Francis says, even if the amount by which we reduce global warming is small, this can have a tremendous impact on the lives of many people, sparing them future hardship and suffering. Even if we are not able to address the whole problem ourselves, and even if goals of under 1.5°C or 2°C prove unattainable, the difference between 2.0°C and 2.1°C remains significant, and still something we can be proud to fight for.

Secondly, Pope Francis emphasises that the lasting policy changes we often seek through our submissions are only possible with changes in our societies and attitudes – this is a source of hope and inspiration, because we can already see the progress being made by our parishes and communities across the motu. Laudate Deum reminds us that personal changes are the first step to inspiring our communities to change, which is the step required for countries to change, which in turn will deliver the multilateral action needed to address the climate crisis.

The Laudato Si’ movement works to put the Pope’s vision into action