Ratification declaration notes

Holy See

In ratifying the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Holy See desires to encourage the entire international community to be resolute in promoting authentic cooperation between politics, science, economics, and civil society. Such cooperation, as has been shown in the case of the international ozone regime, «can achieve important outcomes, which make it simultaneously possible to safeguard creation, to promote integral human development and to care for the common good, in a spirit of responsible solidarity and with profound positive repercussions for present and future generations» (Holy See's Declaration Attached to the Instrument of Accession to the Vienna Convention, the Montreal Protocol and its four Amendments, 9 April 2008). The international ozone regime has demonstrated that «we have the freedom needed to limit and direct technology; we can put it at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral» (Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, 18 May 2015, n. 112).

In conformity with its own nature and with the particular character of Vatican City State, the Holy See, by means of the solemn act of ratification, intends to give its own support to the commitment of States to the correct and effective implementation of the ozone regime and to care for our common home. To this end, it wishes to acknowledge the fact that «the continued acceleration of changes affecting humanity and our planet, coupled today with a more intense pace of life and work, should constantly urge us to ask whether the goals of this progress are truly directed to the common good and to a sustainable and integral human development, or whether they cause harm to our world and to the quality of life of much of humanity, now and in the future» (Message of His Holiness Pope Francis to the XXXI Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, 7 November 2019).