World should respond to climate change as if hit by a global war, pope tells COP26

FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis attends the weekly general audience at the Paul VI Audience Hall, at the Vatican, October 13, 2021. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

GLASGOW (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Tuesday that the twin wounds inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change were comparable to those caused by a global conflict and should be confronted in the same way.

In a message to the U.N. COP26 climate talks read in Glasgow by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Francis also said rich countries had an outstanding "ecological debt" with poorer countries because of the disproportionate use of natural resources from developing nations by advanced ones.