- Croatia extend Scotland's losing streak
- South Africa, New Zealand boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes
- 'Very challenging': Israel faces Hezbollah in tricky terrain
- Farrell begins to feel at home as Racing 92 beat Toulon
- South Africa boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes with Bangladesh win
- Samson ton powers India to T20 series sweep after record total
- Djokovic to face Sinner in Shanghai final with 100th title in sight
- UN peacekeepers to remain in Lebanon: spokesman
- Pro-Conquest film fuels debate in Mexico over colonial legacy
- Samson ton powers India to record 297-6 in Bangladesh T20
- New Zealand enjoy perfect start to America's Cup defence over Britain
- Pogacar emulates icon Coppi with fourth straight Il Lombardia triumph
- UN warns against 'catastrophic' regional conflict
- New Zealand crush Ineos Britannia in America's Cup opener
- Djokovic to face Sinner in blockbuster Shanghai Masters final
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- Sri Lanka seeks to match success in W.Indies T20s
- Sinner reaches Shanghai final, will end year number one
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Sabalenka downs Gauff in three sets to reach Wuhan final
- Israel warns south Lebanon residents to 'not return'
- Sinner tames Machac to reach Shanghai Masters final
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- Hezbollah fires at Israel as wars rage on Yom Kippur
- Analysts warn more detail needed on new China economic measures
- China tees up fresh spending to boost ailing economy
- China says will issue special bonds to boost ailing economy
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Dodgers drop Padres 2-0 to advance in MLB playoffs
- Alexei Navalny wrote he knew he would die in prison in new memoir
- Last-minute legal ruling allows betting on US election
- Despite hurricanes, Floridians refuse to leave 'paradise'
- Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes
- Trump demonizes migrants in dark, misleading speech
- X says 'alert' to manipulation efforts after pro-Russia bots report
- US, European markets rise before Boeing unveils sweeping job cuts
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Comoros shock Tunisia, Salah, Mbeumo strike in AFCON qualifiers
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
- Germany win in Nations League as 10-man Dutch rescue point
- Undav brace sends Germany to victory against Bosnia
- Israel says fired at 'threat' near UN position in Lebanon
- Want to film in Paris? No sexism allowed
- Ecuador's last mountain iceman dies at 80
- Milton leaves at least 16 dead, millions without power in Florida
- Senegal set to announce breakaway development agenda: PM
- UN says 2 peacekeepers wounded in south Lebanon explosions
- Injury-hit Australia thrash 'embarrassing' Pakistan at Women's T20 World Cup
Pope to publish follow-up to landmark climate text
Eight years after warning in a landmark thesis of the devastation of man-made climate change, Pope Francis is publishing an update Wednesday to take stock and offer ideas for action.
The short follow-up to the 2015 encyclical "Laudato Si" ("Praise Be To You") comes just weeks before the next round of UN climate talks kick off in Dubai amid warnings that the world is perilously off course in meeting its goals on reducing carbon emissions.
The new papal text, "Laudate Deum" (Praise to God), will be "a look at what has happened and say what needs to be done", Francis, 86, said last month.
The original document, which ran to almost 200 pages, was aimed not just at the world's 1.3 billion Catholics but everyone on the planet, a call to global solidarity to act together to protect "our common home".
Grounded in climate research, it clearly stated that humanity was responsible for global warming, and warned that the rapid pace of change and degradation had brought the world to near "breaking point".
But it also had a strong moral message, with Francis blaming consumerism, individualism and a pursuit of economic growth for leading to "the planet being squeezed dry".
The pontiff also argued that rich countries must accept they are most responsible for the climate crisis and help poorer countries who are suffering the most.
The document sparked a global debate unprecedented for a religious text, including commentaries in scientific journals.
Months later, there was a breakthrough in UN climate talks in Paris, in which experts said the Vatican played a significant behind-the-scenes role.
Nearly every nation on Earth committed to limit warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
But the UN warned last month that the world is not on track to meet these goals, while climate monitors predict 2023 will be the hottest in human history, with the Northern Hemisphere's summer marked by heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.
"It's time to work together to stop the ecological catastrophe before it's too late," Pope Francis said last month in a video address to the UN General Assembly.
- Declining moral authority -
The new text is expected to be much shorter than the 2015 thesis, while its format, an apostolic exhortation rather than an encyclical, carries less weight in Catholic theology.
Professor Ottmar Edenhofer, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and an advisor on "Laudato Si", said it is unlikely to have the same influence.
The original was a gamechanger, Edenhofer told AFP, making climate change a real issue in the Catholic Church, but also sparking debate among the scientific community, and showing how science and religion could work together.
But while Francis has since made climate change a key theme of his papacy, Edenhofer said his influence is not what it was.
"The moral authority of the Catholic Church has declined significantly in the past eight years, and one reason is the sexual abuse crisis," he said.
In 2015, Francis had only been in office two years and "was perceived as one of the big moral leaders, the most important leaders worldwide".
Today, however, "the world is in a crisis, the Church is in a crisis, I don't think this will have a comparable impact", Edenhofer said.
- Motivating action -
The impact of "Laudato Si" persists, however, through an eponymous global community to share ideas for action, while the Vatican also set up a platform offering guidance on what can be done.
On the fifth anniversary of the encyclical, in 2020, the Vatican called on Catholics to disinvest from the fossil fuel industry -- a move it says has brought concrete action, although this is hard to confirm.
The tiny Vatican City State has also pledged to reduce its net carbon emissions to zero before 2050, although its contribution to the global total is miniscule.
It continues to work with scientists.
Earlier this year, the respected Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) published a booklet with the Vatican offering succinct explanations of urgent issues to try to motivate people to act, based on "Laudato Si".
"What is needed now is both individual and collective action to solve the triple planetary crisis we face -- climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss," SEI project leader Molly Burd told AFP.
"Religious leaders, like all true leaders, can play a role in influencing behaviour through the communities they lead."
T.Ward--AMWN