FAO Director-General emphasizes importance of an agreement at Paris summit

FAO Director-General and Cardinal Turkson, president of the Pontificial Council for Justice and Peace and one of the Vatican’s leading experts on the encyclical.

FAO 26 October 2015, Rome – Hunger eradication and sustainable development will not be achieved if we do not take urgent action on climate change, said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, calling on the global community to put food security and agriculture at the center of the debates on climate change.

Graziano Da Silva spoke at a dialogue event held ahead of the upcoming Paris COP21 conference on climate change (30  November–11 December). “If we don’t reach a deal there, all the Sustainable Development Goals will be at risk,” he said, referring to 17 pledges international leaders recently agreed to achieve by 2030.

Several high-ranking Vatican officials attended the meeting in Rome, which focused on Laudato Si’, the encyclical letter released by Pope Francis last June.

The encyclical views the crisis of hunger and poverty  and the environment as one single crisis and claims the solution requires strong cooperative action to protect the “common home” of humans and nature.

 “There is a set of inalienable human rights that are violated every day and climate change will only exacerbate these injustices,” Graziano da Silva  said, speaking about the 800 million people who continue to suffer from chronic hunger and the nearly 160 million children under the age 5 who are stunted.