Pope says failure of upcoming Paris climate summit would be catastrophic

Pope Francis said humanity is confronted with a choice which cannot be ignored: either to improve or destroy the environment.

Nairobi: World leaders must reach a historic agreement to fight climate change and poverty at coming Paris, facing the stark choice to either "improve or destroy the environment", Pope Francis said in Africa on Thursday.

Francis chose his first visit to the world's poorest continent to issue a clarion call for the success of the two-week summit, known as COP21, that starts on Monday in a French capital still reeling from Nov. 13 attacks by Islamic State militants that killed 130 people.