Citing Pope Leo’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, a Vatican diplomat called upon the international community to “move beyond development metrics tied to gross domestic product,” especially with regard to Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
Addressing a UN discussion on SIDS, Msgr. Marco Formica, interim chargé d’affaires of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, said on July 9 that small island nations’ “exposure to climate-related disasters, environmental degradation, and external economic shocks repeatedly unmask deep structure vulnerabilities that GDP-metrics fail to capture.”