In his highly anticipated first major address on climate change, Pope Leo XIV appealed to Catholics and global citizens alike on Wednesday, urging them to continue the vital environmental work initiated by his predecessor, Pope Francis. He emphasized that environmental action should not be viewed as a ‘divisive’ issue, but rather a universal responsibility.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a climate conference, Pope Leo marked the tenth anniversary of ‘Laudato Si,’ Pope Francis’s landmark encyclical that underscored the critical need to safeguard our planet’s health. He asserted that the environmental challenges outlined in that document are “even more relevant today than they were 10 years ago,” highlighting the persistent urgency of the crisis.
For just over ten minutes, in the picturesque setting of the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, located approximately 17 miles southeast of the Vatican, Pope Leo captivated an audience that included actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as Brazil’s climate minister. His address centered on empowering individuals and local communities to take concrete steps against escalating climate pressures.
“Every member of society, acting through non-governmental organizations and various advocacy groups, bears the responsibility to exert pressure on governments,” Pope Leo stated, “to ensure the development and implementation of more stringent regulations, procedures, and oversight.” He stressed the importance of active citizen participation in political decision-making at all levels – national, regional, and local – as the sole path to effectively mitigate environmental damage.
Wednesday’s impactful speech clearly signaled the new pontiff’s dedication to maintaining climate change as a central theme in global discourse.
Elected in May as the first American pope, Leo XIV has largely adopted a cautious stance on numerous contentious issues. However, his most compelling remarks on Wednesday directly invoked the powerful language of Pope Francis. He posed a poignant question: “What collective action is needed now to ensure that the stewardship of our common home, and the urgent calls from both the earth and the impoverished, are not dismissed as fleeting fads, or even worse, perceived as sources of division?” This echoed some of Francis’s most resonant pleas.
Delivering his address just over a week after former President Trump controversially declared climate change the “greatest deception ever inflicted upon the world” at the United Nations General Assembly, Pope Leo carefully avoided any direct criticism of specific national leaders or their policies.
Nevertheless, in his Wednesday address, Pope Leo subtly referenced Francis’s 2023 update to Laudato Si. That document observed that “some have chosen to scoff at the increasingly undeniable indicators of climate change, to ‘ridicule those who speak of global warming,’ and even to unjustly blame the poor for the very crisis that impacts them most severely.”
Pope Francis consistently framed climate change as a profound spiritual concern for the Roman Catholic Church’s 1.4 billion adherents, frequently cautioning that the world’s most vulnerable populations bear the brunt of global warming’s devastating consequences.
Just last month, Pope Leo introduced a new Mass rite dedicated to imploring divine assistance in caring for creation. In doing so, he spoke forcefully against “injustice, breaches of international law and human rights, stark inequalities, and the insatiable greed that fuels them,” all of which he identified as driving forces behind rampant deforestation, widespread pollution, and the alarming loss of biodiversity.
The extent to which the Pope’s moral authority can genuinely impact global climate action remains an open question. In 2015, for instance, a minimum of ten world leaders cited Pope Francis during the United Nations climate summit that culminated in the historic Paris Agreement. This accord saw nations commit to curbing global warming to under two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Francis himself attempted to influence national politics, notably by presenting Mr. Trump with a copy of Laudato Si in 2017, imploring him to keep the United States in the Paris climate accord. Despite this direct appeal, Mr. Trump ultimately withdrew the U.S.
Pope Francis had openly expressed his disappointment that his advocacy did not translate into more decisive action. In his 2023 update to Laudato Si, he regretfully noted the minimal progress made in curbing greenhouse gas emissions since the encyclical’s initial publication.
As world leaders and environmental activists gear up for the upcoming 30th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference in Brazil, alarming signs persist that global temperatures continue to rise, causing catastrophic consequences for millions worldwide. Marina Silva, Brazil’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, remarked before the Pope that the pledges made in the Paris Agreement “have neither been fully realized nor adequately adhered to, despite the unequivocal warnings from the scientific community.”
She further stressed the urgent need for “the ethical resolve to honor these commitments, for the well-being of both current and future generations, with a particular focus on protecting the most vulnerable and marginalized communities.”
The World Meteorological Organization reported that 2024 marked the warmest year in its 175 years of record-keeping. That same year, extreme weather events tragically displaced the highest number of people annually since 2008.
Domestically, in the United States, Mr. Trump had shuttered research laboratories focused on how a warming planet alters weather patterns and paused numerous renewable energy initiatives. Globally, nations such as China, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia have significantly ramped up coal power production since 2020. Disturbingly, merely one-third of the original signatories to the Paris Agreement have submitted updated climate commitments.
The polarized geopolitical climate severely hampers international cooperation on environmental action, according to Cardinal Michael Czerny, a close environmental collaborator of Pope Francis and current head of the Vatican ministry overseeing climate issues.
In an interview conducted Wednesday morning at the Vatican, Cardinal Czerny lamented, “With multilateralism fragmented, it is extraordinarily difficult to confront global issues that, while having local and regional origins and repercussions, are universal in scope.” He concluded with concern, stating, “Our collective ability to cooperate appears to be swiftly declining.”
He expressed apprehension that the upcoming United Nations conference could devolve into little more than a “charade.”
Despite these discouraging setbacks, environmental activists and some climate scientists hold onto hope that the Pope’s moral leadership could still catalyze meaningful change.
Piers Forster, a professor of climate physics at the University of Leeds in England and former chairman of a British government climate advisory board, remarked, “Of course, we won’t solve this problem instantaneously. However, every small step and every statement made by a figure as influential as Pope Leo can undeniably start steering populations and nations toward a more sustainable future.”
Josephine de La Bruyère also contributed to this report from Rome and Castel Gandolfo.