His Holiness and representatives don’t often descend from the Vatican to get involved in the scrappy detail of SBSTA-SBI negotiations at COPs.
The Pope himself was scheduled to join the Leaders’ Summit at the opening of COP28, but was sadly held back by health issues. Undeterred, He sent his representative to one of the most critical issues at COP28, affecting billions of people around the world.
Indeed, the Pope’s person felt moved to share His Holiness’s views at the closing contact group of the Sharm-el-Sheikh Joint Work on Implementation of Agriculture and Food Security earlier this week.
And apparently one of God’s biggest envoys on Earth is not impressed.
Agriculture negotiations were unable to come to any agreement on the process to take forward the work, nor on the workshop topics to dive into in the years to come.
With 2.4 billion people – largely women and residents of rural areas – lacking access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, and that number growing every year, it is unacceptable that Parties prefer to play with procedural conclusions, instead of proactively progressing productive outcomes.
With agriculture outcomes delayed for yet another year, the agribusiness corporations that are fuelling the climate crisis, starving the world and feeding their shareholders, continue business as usual.
In a powerful statement that spoke for the billions who need the UN process to deliver a food system fit for purpose in an era of climate change, the pope said Nope to agribusiness, delays and distractions, and a “Hell, yes!” to agroecological principles.
Witnesses report that when the Holy See spoke, the roof of Meeting Room 2 split open, the clouds parted, the air went dark and a beam of light shone down from the heavens.
ECO will send up a few prayers that the next round of agriculture negotiations manage a miracle. We need all the help we can get turning this water into wine.