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The much-anticipated environmental encyclical that Pope Francis plans to issue this summer is already being translated into the world’s major languages from the Latin final draft, so there’s no more tweaking to be done, several people close to the process have told me in recent weeks.

But the campaign to make sure that the document has as much impact as possible on climate diplomacy leading up to Paris treaty talks in December is just getting into gear.

An event today at the Vatican — organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Religions for Peace — is setting the tone for what’s to come.

[The final declaration from the participants is out; here’s my new post.]

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The meeting — “Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity: The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Development” — will include speeches by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and leaders of the pontifical academies, along with panels on relevant scientific, moral and economic issues (see the details here).

[To track the day’s events on Twitter, follow Oscar Soria (@oscar_soria), an Argentinian journalist and human rights campaigner.]

At the bottom of this post, you can read an excerpt from the final draft of “Climate Change and the Common Good — a Statement of the Problem and the Demand for Transformative Solutions,” a declaration that is scheduled to be issued at the meeting, signed by a dozen participants, mostly members of the pontifical academies.

[10:07 a.m.| In his speech opening the meeting Ban made this important pitch to religious leaders in the room and beyond:

Together, the major faith groups have established, run, or contribute to over half of all schools world-wide. You are also the third largest category of investors in the world. I urge you to invest in the clean energy solutions that will benefit the poor and clear our air. Sustainable development requires sustainable energy for all. I also urge you to continue to reduce your footprint and educate your followers to reduce thoughtless consumption.]

A news article in The Times by Coral Davenport and Laurie Goodstein describes various attempts at spin and counter-spin around the encyclical and the meeting, including events being staged in Rome by conservative groups opposed to restrictions on greenhouse gases.

This excerpt from the story pretty much brackets the conversation:

Maureen Mullarkey, a painter and writer, said in the conservative journal First Things that “Francis sullies his office by using demagogic formulations to bully the populace into reflexive climate action with no more substantive guide than theologized propaganda.” Timothy E. Wirth, vice chairman of the United Nations Foundation, said: “We’ve never seen a pope do anything like this. No single individual has as much global sway as he does. What he is doing will resonate in the government of any country that has a leading Catholic constituency.”

But there’s not much need for interpretation, given the clarity in Vatican signals about what’s in the encyclical.

In a speech in Ireland last month, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, a leader of the encyclical drafting effort, said, “It will explore the relationship between care for creation, integral human development and concern for the poor.”

He described the significance of this year in detail:

The timing of the encyclical is significant: 2015 is a critical year for humanity. In July, nations will gather for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa. In September, the U.N. General Assembly should agree on a new set of sustainable development goals running until 2030. In December, the Climate Change Conference in Paris will receive the plans and commitments of each Government to slow or reduce global warming. The coming 10 months are crucial, then, for decisions about international development, human flourishing and care for the common home we call planet Earth.

He laid out four principles of “integral ecology” guiding Francis. Explore them in his speech and come back. There’s more from Michelle Boorstein in the Washington Post.

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The declaration being released at the Vatican has sections on the basics of climate change science, global economic trends and the Sustainable Development Goals that are being finalized this year in United Nations discussions.

Here’s the opening section (from the final draft):

Unsustainable consumption coupled with a record human population and the uses of inappropriate technologies are causally linked with the destruction of the world’s sustainability and resilience. Widening inequalities of wealth and income, the world-wide disruption of the physical climate system and the loss of millions of species that sustain life are the grossest manifestations of unsustainability. The continued extraction of coal, oil and gas following the “business-as-usual mode” will soon create grave existential risks for the poorest three billion, and for generations yet unborn. Climate change resulting largely from unsustainable consumption by about 15% of the world’s population has become a dominant moral and ethical issue for society. There is still time to mitigate unmanageable climate changes and repair ecosystem damages, provided we reorient our attitude toward nature and, thereby, toward ourselves. Climate change is a global problem whose solution will depend on our stepping beyond national affiliations and coming together for the common good. Such transformational changes in attitudes would help foster the necessary institutional reforms and technological innovations for providing the energy sources that have negligible effect on global climate, atmospheric pollution and eco-systems, thus protecting generations yet to be born. Religious institutions can and should take the lead in bringing about that change in attitude towards Creation. The Catholic Church, working with the leadership of other religions, can now take a decisive role by mobilizing public opinion and public funds to meet the energy needs of the poorest 3 billion people, thus allowing them to prepare for the challenges of unavoidable climate and eco-system changes. Such a bold and humanitarian action by the world’s religions acting in unison is certain to catalyze a public debate over how we can integrate societal choices, as prioritized under UN’s sustainable development goals, into sustainable economic development pathways for the 21st century, with projected population of 10 billion or more.

Conservatives and capitalists may bridle at some language, like a section calling for “a reallocation of the benefits and burdens that accompany humanity’s activities both within nations and between nations.”

[Many liberals and some conservatives I know will be frustrated by the lack of acknowledgement that population matters — and particularly that boosting access to family planning is an important way to cut social vulnerability to climate (and other) hazards in the world’s poorest regions. (There’s no nod to population in Turkson’s 3,800-word speech, either.)]

But I’d like to think that — despite unavoidable polarization around such ideas — Pope Francis’s engagement on climate, energy, ecology and equity will have a beneficial impact (not that this will result in magical progress in Paris, given the powerful economic and political factors shaping nations’ positions in negotiations).

He has already done much to widen awareness of the risks posed by an unabated buildup in greenhouse gases and the harm to the world’s poor that comes both from related environmental hazards and a lack of clean affordable energy choices.

And, as I’ve said before, his engagement clarifies that while science paints the general picture of the causes and consequences of climate change, it is values and circumstances that will largely shape what societies do, or don’t do.

Read my recent related piece, “The Power and Limits of Pope Francis’s Climate Change Campaign,” for more.

Here’s one of Oscar Soria’s Twitter items:

Ramanathan: 1 bn. live with seemingly unlimited acccess to fossil fuels, the bottom 3 bn. lack access fossil fuel even for cooking #Vatican — Oscar Soria (@oscar_soria) 28 Apr 15

Footnote | Sections in brackets were added after publication.

Disclosure note | In my role as Pace University’s Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding, I was a participant in last year’s related Vatican meeting, “Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature: Our Responsibility.” The United Nations Foundation covered my travel costs, although my opinions, then and now, are my own.