'Global warming is killing the planet'

Pope Francis will this week warn that global warming threatens the future of the planet and say there is both an urgent need and moral imperative to reduce fossil fuel consumption, Vatican sources said yesterday.

A landmark Church statement on the environment, due to be officially released tomorrow, places the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics firmly in the camp of those who say climate change is mainly man-made at a critical time in the global debate over what, if anything, can be done to slow or reverse it.

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The papal intervention, seen as a potential game-changer by Green groups, comes six months before international leaders gather in Paris to try and seal a global deal on steps to reduce carbon emissions.

But he will make it clear that his appeal is addressed to everyone on the planet and that he sees a clear link between defending the environment and delivering social justice.

The encyclical, entitled "Laudato Si" (Be Praised), will reference the views of climate change sceptics who are particularly influential in the United States by acknowledging that natural cases such as volcanic activity have contributed to the phenomenon of rising average temperatures.

Francis's thinking on the issue is in line with the view outlined in a 2013 UN report which concluded that there was a 95 percent chance that global warming was the result of human activity.

But by expressing it he is seen as potentially influencing millions of people who have yet to think seriously about the subject, generating fresh pressure on the nearly 200 governments who will be represented in Paris in December.