Mayors urge bold climate steps
Print Edition
Dozens of environment-friendly mayors from around the world demanded yesterday that their national leaders take bold steps at the Paris climate talks this year, saying that may be the last chance to keep the warming of the Earth at levels safe for humanity.
Some 60 mayors gathered yesterday at the Vatican for a two-day climate conference to keep the pressure on world leaders ahead of the Paris negotiations in December and to promote Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical, which denounced the fossil fuel-based world economy that exploits the poor and destroys the Earth.
The mayors are expected to sign a declaration later stating that “human-induced climate change is a scientific reality and its effective control is a moral imperative for humanity,” according to the final declaration.
In his remarks to the meeting, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced new greenhouse gas emissions targets for the Big Apple and urged other cities to follow suit. “The Paris summit is just months away,” De Blasio said. “We need to see it as the finish line of a sprint, and take every local action we can in the coming months to maximize the chance that our national governments will act boldly.”
De Blasio is a founding member of an alliance of cities around the world that have committed to reducing their emissions by 80 percent by 2050 or sooner. He said New York was taking an interim step, committing to reducing its emissions by 40 percent by 2030.
The climax of the inaugural session was an afternoon audience with Pope Francis, who has become a hero to the environmental movement and has used his moral authority and huge popularity to focus world attention on climate change and its effects on the poor.
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