The development agency's climate expert Mohamed Adow said the deal reached at Durban, South Africa, had saved the talks but endangered the lives of people living in poverty.

Climate negotiators spent last week hammering out an agreement on carbon emission cuts. The "Durban road map" commits countries to drawing up a new pact by 2015, to come into force in 2020.

The letter urged the nation to either lead or get out of the way of progress: "If the United States is not going to lead the world in solving the climate crisis, please stand out of the way. Delaying a climate deal until 2020 would slam the door on avoiding catastrophic climate change."

"There's only a handful of Pacific youth here in Durban, but we are giving everything we've got to ensure that the US and other big polluters don't get away with destroying the future of our Pacific Islands. It's frustrating and hard, but we don't have any choice - we can't just stand by and watch our future drown," said 350.org Pacific's spokesperson Ewan Cameron, who is from the Cook Islands.

Source

• 350.org
• Image: 350.0rg

"Just as South Africa's Apartheid era policies sought divisions along race lines, today the world's environment and energy policies divide man from nature," said the Cardinal.

Midway through the Climate Change Conference, the main issue still on the table is the extension of the Kyoto protocol.

The world's two biggest emitters and major economies, China and the United States, are not signatories of the protocol, which sets legal limits on green house gas emissions, have yet to commit to agreeing to a binding deal.

"How long will countless people have to go on dying before adequate decisions are taken?" Rodriguez said during his Sunday homily.

"It's true that in faith we wait 'for the new heavens and the new earth' but this does not mean indifference or complicity with those who destroy this land where we live," he added.

"'Living holy and saintly lives means living in justice with creation and the environment, and especially with the poor people who are the primary victims of this serious problem."

The Cardinal urged the Durban Climate Change Conference not to remain as a voice silenced by economic power.

Concluding his homily Rodriguez challenging delegates to make the Conference a success and the world a better place. "May this conference be a success for global solidarity, and embody a desire to make a better world for future generations."

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• Image CNS