Point of no return: Pope challenges leaders at UN talks to slow global warming before it’s too late

By NICOLE WINFIELD and SETH BORENSTEIN
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is shaming and challenging world leaders to take concrete action to slow climate change before it’s too late. In an update to his landmark 2015 encycyclical, he’s warning that God’s increasingly warming creation is fast reaching a “point of no return.” The document, “Praise God,” was released Wednesday on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the pontiff’s nature-loving namesake. It’s aimed at spurring negotiators to commit to binding climate targets at the next round of U.N. talks in Dubai. He made a moral imperative for the world to transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy with measures that that are “efficient, obligatory and readily monitored.”