On June 5, Pope Francis met in a private audience with the promoters of the Green and Blue Festival, a celebration of World Environment Day.
In his remarks the Pope remarked that “the first great United Nations Conference on the Human Environment” took place more than 50 years ago: in Stockholm on June 5, 1972. He went on to say that action to stop climate change “is urgent; it cannot be postponed.”
The Stockholm conference and its successors, the Pope said, have “increased our sense of responsibility before God, who entrusted the care of creation to us, before our neighbor and before future generations.”