Getty Pope Francis: Reducing carbon is ‘urgent and pressing’ The pontiff makes the case on climate change in an encyclical that leaked ahead of the official release Thursday.

Pope Francis will warn that it is “urgent and pressing” for the world to slash its consumption of fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions, according to a leaked draft copy of the widely anticipated papal encyclical published by Italy’s L’Espresso today

“We know that the technology based on very polluting fossil fuels — especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser extent, gas — must be progressively and without delay replaced,” the document says. “Waiting for a full development of renewable energies that should have already started, it is justified to pursue the lesser evil or to turn to temporary solutions. However the international community has not reached suitable deals on the responsibilities of those who should bear the higher costs of the energy transition.”

And Pope Francis, who makes his first major foray into the issue with the 192-page teaching, says that efforts to deny the problem or to minimize the threat will only worsen the crisis.

“Many of those who have more resources and economic or political power seem focused especially on concealing problems or hiding symptoms, trying only to reduce some negative impacts of climate change. But many symptoms show that these effects will get even worse if we go ahead with the current models of production and consumption,” the draft says.

“Thereby it has become urgent and pressing to develop policies to drastically reduce in the next years the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases, for example, replacing fossil fuels and developing renewable energy sources.”

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