"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

Rodriguez wants a deal on climate change that puts poor communities in developing countries first and provides for a sustainable future.

"Our climate is changing. This year we saw floods in Central America, South and South East Asia and drought across East Africa," Rodriguez said.

"Urgent action is necessary."

Rodriguez urged climate negotiators to be prompt with an international response to curb the threat of climate change and set the world on a path to a more just and sustainable future.

"The whole world is vulnerable to climate change but poor countries are affected more," he said.

Cardinal Rodriguez is leading a 20-strong Caritas delegation to the United Nations climate talks.

With the modification of climate patters seriously affecting agriculture, Caritas' key concern is peoples' right to food and ensuring the world, particularly the 1 billion people living in extreme poverty, can get access to sufficient safe and healthy food.

Sources

• Caritas
• Image: Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate

Benedict, dubbed the 'green pope' for his environmental concerns, launched his appeal on Sunday during his regular Angelus message.

He said the deal needs to take into account the poor and future generations.

"I hope that all members of the international community agree on a responsible and credible response to this worrisome and complex phenomenon, taking into account the needs of the poorest and future generations," he said.

Benedict denounced the failure of world leaders to agree to a successor treaty to Kyoto during a 2009 U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen.

World peace depends on safeguarding God's creation, Benedict said.

For Benedict, looking after the climate is not an optional extra, it's a moral issue.

Church teaching holds that humanity must respect creation because it's destined for the benefit of humanity's future.

The pope has repeatedly argued that climate change and natural catastrophes threaten people's rights to life, food, health and ultimately peace.

Benedict has regularly has voiced concern about protecting the environment in his writings, during foreign trips, speeches to diplomats and in his annual peace message.

Under Benedict's watch, the Vatican has installed photovoltaic cells on its main auditorium to convert sunlight into electricity and has joined a reforestation project aimed at offsetting its CO2 emissions.

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• Huffington Post
• Image: Green Canticle