ROME – Despite cancelling a planned trip to the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai due to health concerns, Pope Francis sent a message to the event on Saturday lamenting the lack of progress in fighting climate change, repeating appeals for multilateralism, and calling the world to action.

In a prepared speech read aloud by the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis said “the destruction of the environment is an offence against God, a sin that is not only personal but also structural.”