On Tuesday, September 15, Pope Francis urged nations to fight global warming according to the 2015 Paris climate accord, weighing in on issue that figures in the U.S. presidential race

“Our constant demand for growth and an endless cycle of production and consumption are exhausting the natural world,” Francis said. “Forests are leached, topsoil erodes, fields fail, deserts advance, seas acidify and storms intensify. Creation is groaning!”

He made his call in a message on the day Christian Churches mark the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. “We need to do everything in our capacity to limit global average temperature rise under the threshold of 1.5°C enshrined in the Paris Climate Agreement, for going beyond that, will prove catastrophic, especially for poor communities around the world,” he said.

Pope Francis said biodiversity loss, climate disasters, and the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the poor and vulnerable were all a, “wakeup call in the face of our rampant greed and consumption.”