The Vatican urged U. S. President Donald Trump to listen to
ROME: The Vatican urged U. S. President Donald Trump to listen to « dissenting voices » and reconsider his position on climate change on Thursday, saying the United States risked losing its environmental protection leadership to China.
Pope Francis has made defence of the environment a key plank of his papacy, strongly backing scientific opinion that global warming is caused mostly by human activity.
« This is a challenge for us, » said Cardinal Peter Turkson, the pope’s point man for the environmental, immigration and development, when asked about Trump’s executive order dismantling Obama-era climate change regulations and his immigration policies.
« Fortunately, in the United States, there are dissenting voices, people who are against Trump’s positions, » said Turkson, who is from Ghana and was one of the driving forces behind the pope’s 2015 encyclical letter on environmental protection.
« This, for us, is a sign that little by little, other positions and political voices will emerge and so we hope that Trump himself will reconsider some of his decisions, » Turkson told reporters at a breakfast meeting.
The pope and the Vatican, which has diplomatic relations with more than 180 countries and a permanent observer status at the United Nations, have strongly backed the international Paris Agreement in 2015 to curb world temperatures.
