In Papua New Guinea, Pope Hears Plea for Climate Action

In Papua New Guinea, Pope Hears Plea for Climate Action - The New York Times

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In Threatened Island Nation, Pope Hears Plea for Climate Action

Pope Francis is visiting Papua New Guinea, which has been exploited for its natural resources and is imperiled by rising sea levels.

In the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea, hundreds of people may soon have to abandon their homes, pushed inland by the rising sea. Hundreds more were buried in a devastating landslide this year. Around the country, intensive logging is shrinking the island’s lush rainforests, and mine tailings have polluted its rivers.

On Friday, Pope Francis, who has long begged the world to preserve nature, started his visit to a place that is a stark example of how human action can harm the environment. Locals hoped his presence would make a difference.

“Your holiness, climate change is real,” Bob Dadae, the governor general of Papua New Guinea, told Francis at a meeting on Saturday. “The rise in the sea level is affecting the livelihoods of our people,” he added, asking for the pope’s support for “global action and advocacy.”

Francis did not immediately speak of climate change, but at the meeting in Port Moresby at APEC Haus, a conference center, he said that the country’s environmental “treasures” should be developed in a sustainable way, and for the benefit of all people, not just a few.

When Francis landed in Port Moresby, the nation’s capital, on Friday evening, thousands stood along the road from the airport to welcome him. Some had walked for days from inland mountainous areas for a glimpse of the pope. He arrived after four days in Indonesia, part of an 11-day, four-nation trip to the region.

The pope addressed the issue of climate change on Thursday during a meeting in Jakarta, one of the world’s most polluted cities and among those most at risk from climate change. He said that the climate crisis “has become an obstacle to the growth and the cohabitation of people.”

Cardinal Michael Czerny, in charge of a Vatican department responsible for promoting human development, said that the pope’s trip to the Asia Pacific region underlined the urgency of caring for the environment. “It’s shouting out that we have to take our human and environmental responsibilities seriously,” he said.

Papua New Guinea, which includes the eastern side of the island of New Guinea and hundreds of smaller islands, is rich in mineral deposits like copper, gold and oil, as well as timber, resources that for decades have been extracted and exported by foreign companies.

Its government has faced criticism that many of these activities degrade the environment, and that profits have not trickled down to the population, which still largely lives in poverty. Pope Francis emphasized this point on Saturday.

“It is only right that the needs of local people are given due consideration when distributing the proceeds,” the pope said, adding that the living conditions of workers should also be improved.

Mining and logging are not the only threat to Papua New Guinea. It is among the places in the world most vulnerable to climate change, according to the World Bank.

In the country’s interior highlands, the El Niño weather phenomenon has brought more intense drought and floods. Its coastal regions and islands are exposed to inundation from rising sea levels.

Much of the country lacks modern development, making residents particularly vulnerable to natural hazards. Pope Francis’ visit comes after a devastating landslide there last May. Earthquakes and volcanic activity are also frequent.

Emmanuel Peni said that in March he lost his house in the village of Korogu, in the province of East Sepik, because its structure had been so weakened by flooding that when an earthquake came, “it just fell into the water.”

“The world is changing,” he said. “And we are feeling it.”

Mr. Peni has been fighting a plan for a large copper and gold mine in the area, whose tailings, Indigenous people fear, would harm the Sepik River and their livelihoods. On the river’s delta, three villages have already had to move repeatedly because of rising sea levels, Mr. Peni said.

Over two decades ago, two of the country’s largest rivers, the Ok Tedi River and the Fly River, in the Western province on the border with Indonesia, were severely polluted with waste from a copper and gold mine largely owned by the Australian mining conglomerate BHP.

As he waited for Pope Francis at the Port Moresby airport on Friday, Bishop Rozario Menezes of Lae said that rising sea levels threatened many of his parishioners, and that on the island of Mandok it had become necessary to build sea walls.

“All our island communities are very worried,” he said.

In 2015, Pope Francis wrote “Laudato Si,” the first papal encyclical solely focused on the environment, which aimed to reframe care of nature as a moral and spiritual imperative. Since then, he has repeatedly urged world leaders to try to stave off the most dangerous effects of global warming.

John Rosso, Papua New Guinea’s deputy prime minister, said he hoped the pope would address climate change while visiting.

“It would make a strong message, especially for first world countries,” Mr. Rosso said as he waited to greet Francis at the airport. “We bear the brunt of their emissions.”

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