Pope singles out US for ‘irresponsible’ excess in call for action on climate change

Pope Francis singled out the United States for its “irresponsible” Western lifestyle and excess carbon emissions in a Wednesday address at the United Nations.

Individual, household efforts are helping combat climate change, the pontiff said, but “we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact.”

Francis noted that per-capita, emissions in the U.S. are twice as high as China and seven times greater than poorer countries. In a speech to U.N. world leaders, Francis shamed and challenged them to slow climate change before it’s too late.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there have been 152 climate or weather disasters in the U.S. since the pope’s most recent climate message in 2015, The Associated Press reported.

“We are now unable to halt the enormous damage we have caused. We barely have time to prevent even more tragic damage,” he said Wednesday.

Countries should agree to phase out oil, coal and natural gas as fast as possible, the pope wrote in his document, “Praise God,” which was intended to spur negotiations to create binding climate agreements.

In his 2015 address “Praise Be,” Francis used his authoritative teaching documents to recast the climate debate, a first for a pope and the Catholic Church. It was released ahead of climate talks with the hope of giving world leaders urgency on the matter.

Francis said the update was necessary because “our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point.”

The pope released “Praise God” ahead of next month’s U.N. climate talks, which begin Nov. 30 in Dubai.

The Associated Press contributed.