By staff writers and CNS
POPE Francis intends to address world leaders at a crucial summit on the climate change emergency later this year.
News that Pope Francis would attend the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November was revealed by John Kerry, US President Joe Biden’s climate change envoy, after holding talks in the Vatican with the Holy Father.
Mr Kerry met privately with Pope Francis on May 15, the day after giving a keynote address at a closed-door meeting of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences and the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences.
Papal meeting: Pope Francis exchanges gifts with John Kerry, US special presidential envoy for climate, at the Vatican. Photo: CNS
Vatican Media released photos and video showing the US envoy giving Pope Francis his autobiography,”Every Day Is Extra,” and the Pulitzer-winning environmental novel, The Overstory, by Richard Powers.
Pope Francis gave Mr Kerry a signed copy of his message for World Peace Day, a collection of his encyclicals, including Laudato Si’ on ecology, and a sculpture of a grapevine.
In an interview later with Vatican News, Mr Kerry said he believed Pope Francis intended to participate in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, commonly referred to as COP16.
In fact, in one of the partial video clips released by the Vatican, Mr Kerry can be heard telling his staff, “First day, he’ll be there with the heads of state.”
Someone replied: “That’s great. We’ve been hearing that, so it’s nice to have confirmation.”
Mr Kerry then said: “It will be amazing. I’m telling you it will have a profound impact.”
In the Vatican News interview, Mr Kerry said Pope Francis’ moral authority and teaching on the need to address both climate change and poverty can rally more people to make a greater commitment to helping the environment.
The US envoy is in Europe to discuss ways to ramp up action to stem climate change even before world leaders meet at COP26.
Meeting with Italian government officials on May 13, Mr Kerry said that all countries must begin cutting emissions immediately if they are to have any hope of meeting the goal of keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“It’s not enough to say, ‘zero emissions by 2050,'” Mr Kerry said, according to ANSA, the Italian news agency.
“We must do the things now that will make it possible to arrive at what we need by 2050.”
