Pope Francis is welcoming dozens of mayors to discuss reducing global warming and helping the urban poor to deal with its effects. The mayor of the western Canadian city of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, will attend.
Pope Francis has already engaged Nobel laureates, faith leaders from around the world, the UN, businesses and Canadian environmental advocate Naomi Klein to promote his message that it is an urgent moral imperative to care for the Earth.
Mayors commit to cutting GHG emissions
Some 60 mayors will attend the two-day meeting. Several already belong to the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance. That’s a new association of cities promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050.
Experts say it is critical for cities to act since they account for nearly three-quarters of human emissions. Mayors are also on the front lines of responding to the effects of climate change.
Pope Francis has blamed global warming on an unfair, fossil fuel-based industrial economic model which he says harms the poor the most.
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