ROME, Nov 2, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Pope Francis on Wednesday said he would attend the crucial COP28 climate talks that will start in Dubai on November 30.
 
  "I will go to Dubai. I think that I will leave on December 1 through the 3rd. I'll spend three days there," the pontiff told Italy's Rai 1 television.
 
  It will mark the first time that a pope will attend a COP summit, since they began in 1995.
 
  Since becoming pontiff in 2013 the 86-year-old Francis has made the environment one of the main themes of his papacy.
 
  In early October, Francis published an update on his landmark thesis of the devastation of man-made climate change that he released eight years ago.
 
  The new papal text, "Laudate Deum" (Praise to God) was a follow-up to the 2015 encyclical "Laudato Si" ("Praise Be To You").
 
  "Laudato Si" ran to almost 200 pages and was aimed not just at the world's 1.3 billion Catholics, but everyone on the planet, a call to global solidarity to act together to protect "our common home".