(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 10 - Pope Francis on Sunday urged leaders taking part in the COP29 climate summit opening Monday in the capital of Azerbaijan Baku to give an effective contribution in protecting the environment.
    The pontiff said during his Angelus address that he hoped the UN climate conference - the 29th leadership gathering to address global warming since the first Conference of the Parties in 1995 - "will give an effective contribution to the safeguard of our common home".
    The pontiff recalled the three-year anniversary of the Laudato si' Action Platform, created following his 2015 Encyclical Laudato si', which vies to promote the safeguard of the environment placing human beings at the centre, with the most vulnerable often bearing the brunt of climate change.
    And Pope Francis expressed closeness Sunday to the "residents of Valencia and other parts of Spain" who are dealing with the consequences of deadly flooding and to the population of the island of Flores, in Indonesia, where a series of volcanic eruptions of Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki killed nine people and injured dozens of others. (ANSA).