The Mayor of Accra, Elizabeth Kwatsoe Sackey and a delegation from the Green & Blue Festival, have called on the head of the Catholic Church, the bishop of Rome and the sovereign of the Vatican City State, Pope Francis, to deliberate and mitigate the devastating environmental, economic and social consequences of climate change.

The Mayor and the delegation made up of organisers and participants attending the Green & Blue Festival in Rome, called on the Pope at the Vatican on Monday, to coincide with World Environment Day on June 5.

The Pope, who welcomed the delegation to the Vatican encouraged them in their commitment to protecting the environment, and called on all and sundry “to move away from the throwaway culture towards ways of living marked by a culture of respect and care; care of creation and care of our neighbours, whether they be near or far from us either geographically or through time."

According to him, combating climate change, requires recognising one’s responsibility to those “who have contributed least to its occurrence” — the world’s poorest and most vulnerable — and developing a sense of “responsible cooperation” among everyone.

"Our world is now thoroughly interdependent and cannot allow itself to be divided into blocs of countries that promote their own interests in an isolated or unsustainable way... The real enemy is irresponsible behaviour that has profound consequences for every aspect of the lives of men and women of today and tomorrow,” he said.

Speaking after the meeting with the Pope, the Mayor of Accra called for more collaboration between the global south and global north cities to tackle climate change urgently.

She mentioned some climate-related activities the City of Accra has embarked upon in collaboration with C40 Cities, a climate action group, including the launch of the city’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) among others.

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She also stated that the City of Accra would be participating in the Green Ghana Project which is scheduled to take place in the month of June 2023, to encourage afforestation and create a platform for more trees to be planted in the city to control greenhouse gases in the foreseeable future.

After the meeting, the Mayor together with Pope Francis, organizers and participants of the festival took a group photograph with a banner that read “Loss and Damage. Finance Now,” a reference to a fund that was agreed upon at the COP27 U.N. climate conference in 2022 after decades of pressure from vulnerable developing countries.