Mayors at Vatican to rally climate momentum, share ideas

“The City of Boulder’s leadership on climate change is globally recognized, and earned us a spot at this important gathering”, said Mayor Appelbaum.

The pope spoke at a Vatican-hosted conference of mayors and governors from major world cities who signed a declaration urging global leaders to take bold action at the United Nations summit, saying it may be the last chance to tackle human-induced global warming.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called Pope Francis “the most powerful voice on this earth for those whose voice is not being heard”, and added: “He did not convene us here to accept the status quo but to indict it”.

The Vatican says the event aims to raise the awareness among world leaders of the challenges and measures necessary in fighting climate change and modern slavery in local communities.

Joining him on the two-day climate conference are about 60 mayors from around the world who are demanding that their national leaders take bold steps at the Paris climate talks this year. The Pope denounced the “structurally perverse” global economic system in which the wealthy exploit the poor and destroy the Earth in the process.

In a rejection of so-called climate-change deniers, the declaration says: “Human-induced climate change is a scientific reality, and its effective control is a moral imperative for humanity”. California has enacted the toughest greenhouse gas emissions standards in North America.

Other mayors attending hail from Boston; Boulder, Colorado; Oslo, Norway; San Francisco and Vancouver.

“Climate negotiators must dare to push boundaries and exclude fossil fuels as an option and reward solutions that are long-term sustainable and recyclable”, she told a Vatican conference on climate Tuesday.

Monica Fein came all the way from Pope Francis’ native Argentina to tell her fellow mayors that the Jesuit pope is a game-changer in the debate about climate and sustainable development. Wanngard’s goal is to make the Swedish capital fossil fuel-free by 2040.

He sees environmental degradation and human trafficking as related exploitations that affect the poor.

Deniers of climate change are spending “billions on trying to keep from office people such as yourselves and elect troglodytes and other deniers of the obvious science”, the Democratic governor said, according to the AP.