Last month, Pope Francis issued an encyclical calling not just upon Catholics but people in general to make a more concerted effort to address human induced climate change. In his declaration Francis blamed mankind’s reckless practices that have brought the Earth to this breaking point. However, The Washington Post reveals Francis needs to work on reducing his carbon footprint. In other words, his encyclical is nothing more than do as I say, not as I do.

The Pope’s trips to places like Latin American countries and return flights to Rome are quite extensive. The Post points out:

Francis’ first journey of the trip was a VIP flight from Rome to Quito, the Ecuadorean capital, put on by Alitalia especially for the papal visit. The pope’s Latin America trip will see him travel more than 14,900 miles, mostly by air, creating a large carbon footprint that appears to go against his environmental message.

A quick glance at the pope’s 2015 foreign travel agenda — 11 countries across five continents — and the size of the pontiff’s carbon footprint starts to look quite large.

As explained by James Lees from the U.K.’s Aviation Environment Federation, which campaigns for sustainability in the industry, air travel accounts for about the same amount of emissions as Germany produces as a country. “So for both individual and collective action, aviation has the potential to undo good work to cut emissions elsewhere,” he said.

But Lisa Sideris, director of the Indiana University Consortium for the Study of Religion, Ethics and Society, said the pontiff is just one of a number of climate activists who must travel extensively to achieve their goals.

A case could be made that he can justify the trips since he has to make his case to Catholics abroad. However, he can easily communicate to the church hierarchy of Cardinals, Bishops and clergy to do most of the work. Plus also the encyclical is sold in bookstores and can be communicated through the world wide web as well as Vatican-friendly media. True that his presence could have more of an impact in him making the case for his encyclical, but he does not have to since he is the agent of God on Earth. What he says when it comes to church affairs goes.

Ultimately, the encyclical is not binding on the faithful since it is not church doctrine. The encyclical acts as a way for Catholics to consider his statement very seriously. Otherwise, if they choose not to they will not be condemned for doing so. In short, Francis’ declaration enjoys the status of having no more importance than an opinion piece in a newspaper. His actions, on the other hand, are an indication of how serious he is, which is not at all. That is, unless of course the church has recently decided to further buy carbon credits from Al Gore.