KENYA / POPE FRANCIS

Pope Francis warned Thursday that it would be "catastrophic" for world leaders to let special interest groups get in the way of a global agreement to curb fossil fuel emissions, during his visit to the UN Regional Office in Nairobi, Kenya. APTN COURTESY

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:57
• Production Date: 26 November 2015
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: POPE FRANCIS
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME - UNEP
• Subject Topical: CLIMATE CHANGE
• MAMS Id: 1520016
• Parent Id: 1520016
• Alternate Title: unifeed151126c

Description

STORY: KENYA / POPE FRANCIS
TRT: 02:57
SOURCE: APTN COURTESY
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: SPANISH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION MIXED IN / NATS
DATELINE: 26 NOVEMBER 2015, NAIROBI KENYA

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, Pope Francis walking onto podium at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi.
2. Wide shot, Pope Francis.
3. Cutaway, lady taking pictures.
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Pope Francis:
"In a few days an important meeting on climate change will be held in Paris, where the international community as such will once again confront these issues. It would be sad, and I dare say even catastrophic, were particular interests to prevail over the common good and lead to manipulating information in order to protect their own plans and projects.”
5. Cutaway, cameraman.
6. Cutaway, UN security.
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Pope Francis:
"We cannot be silent about forms of illegal trafficking which arise in situations of poverty and in turn lead to greater poverty and exclusion. Illegal trade in diamonds and precious stones, rare metals or those of great strategic value, wood, biological material and animal products, such as ivory trafficking and the relative killing of elephants, fuels political instability, organized crime and terrorism. This situation too is a cry rising up from humanity and the earth itself, one which needs to be heard by the international community.”
8. Med shot of crowd clapping
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Pope Francis:
"May the blessing of the Most High be with each of you and your peoples. Thank you.”
10. Close up, Pope Francis exiting hall

Storyline

Pope Francis warned Thursday that it would be "catastrophic" for world leaders to let special interest groups get in the way of a global agreement to curb fossil fuel emissions as he brought his environmental message to the heart of Africa on the eve of make-or-break climate change talks in Paris.

Francis issued the pointed warning in a speech to the UN regional office in Nairobi, Kenya, after celebrating his first public Mass on the continent.

A joyous, rain-soaked ceremony before 300,000 faithful that saw the Argentine pope being serenaded by ululating Swahili singers, swaying nuns, Maasai tribesmen and dancing children dressed in the colours of Kenya's flag.

Francis has made ecological concerns a hallmark of his nearly 3-year-old papacy, issuing a landmark encyclical earlier this year that paired the need to care for the environment with the need to care for humanity's most vulnerable.

Francis argues the two are interconnected since the poor often suffer the most from the effects of global warming, and are largely excluded from today's fossil-fuel based global economy that is heating up the planet.

On Thursday, Francis repeated that message but took particular aim at those who reject the science behind global warming.

Francis, who has said global warming is "mainly" man-made, said the world was faced with a stark choice: either improve or destroy the environment. He said he hoped the Paris talks would approve a "transformational" agreement to fight poverty and protect the environment by developing a new energy system that depends on minimal fossil fuel use.

His speech followed a similarly emphatic one before the UN General Assembly in New York in September, and in various speeches on his travels to South America and Asia.

Thursday was the second day in a row that Francis had touched on environmental concerns after he arrived in Kenya for a six-day pilgrimage that also takes him to Uganda on Friday and the conflict-ridden Central African Republic.

Francis' first full day in Africa began with a meeting with about 25 Kenyan Christian and Muslim leaders. He warned them that they had little choice but to engage in dialogue to guard against the "barbarous" Islamic extremist attacks that have struck the country.

He later celebrated Mass before about 300,000 people at the University of Nairobi, where he received a raucous welcome from the crowd as he zoomed around in his open-sided popemobile, some 10,000 police providing security. Some people had been at the university since 3 AM, braving heavy showers that turned the grounds into enormous, slick mud puddles. Others waited in queues 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) deep to get close to the venue.