Climate change, biodiversity, water crisis and desertification, the campaign against poverty, the promotion of sustainable lifestyles, and the centrality of the person in social and environmental policies: these are the challenges that humanity is called to tackle in the near future and the proposals that the Churches will bring to the attention of the next UN Conference “Rio +10” on sustainable development to be held in Johannesburg from 26 August to 4 September. They were also discussed in Venice, in the course of the 4th Consultation of the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE) on work and responsibility for the creation, held in the lagoon city from 23 to 26 May. According to Antonella Visintin of the European Ecumenical Network for the Environment (EENE) “climate change represents one of the most serious emergencies of our time. It involves various other factors, not least that of human mobility. Not to mention the lack of water and the desertification that represent the causes of future wars”. Stefan Lunte, delegate of COMECE (Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community), emphasized that a sustainable development cannot dispense with the adoption of sustainable lifestyles and hence with the contribution that the Churches may make in this field. “The fight against poverty he added – cannot fail to take account of the needs of the poorest peoples, and one such need is undoubtedly water. Sharing the resources of the earth with the poorest peoples meaning giving them the necessary technology to do so, such as water purification plant to provide them with drinking water or the necessary infrastructures to transport water from one place to another”. Issues of poverty were also addressed by Kishore Jayabalan, of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, who announced the preparation of a leaflet on sustainable development and human development, in view of the Johannesburg summit. The publication “it won’t be a document but a simple brochure” will tackle such issues as the eradication of poverty, international cooperation and financial aid”. “We know said Jayabalan that poverty is the greatest problem. It’s by now clear that when a country has a sustainable development, its social and environmental problems diminish. But in the view of the Holy See, it’s also indispensable to recall the attention of the international community to the human person who is the most important resource of all”. The Holy See said Jayabalan will therefore bring to the Johannesburg summit “the voice of the poor, but especially the voice of the human person in all the aspects, material but also cultural and spiritual, of the life of man”.
