The world may have another climate pope
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Photo illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios. Photo: Vatican Pool/Getty Images
Don't expect Pope Leo XIV to file comments in EPA dockets, but he could build upon the late Pope Francis' unprecedented Vatican focus on climate change.
Why it matters: The pope has a massive bully pulpit as leader of a church with 1.4 billion members worldwide, and reaches people well beyond that.
- The Vatican lacks official power to sway policies, but lots of global climate architecture already operates on persuasion — the Paris agreement doesn't force nations to do anything.
- And there's scaffolding around papal climate efforts now, with Francis giving rise to the Laudato Si' Movement based on his 2015 encyclical on the topic.
Driving the news: Leaders of the next UN climate summit in Brazil quickly invited the new pope to attend.
- "The COP30 Presidency hopes to welcome Pope Leo XIV in Belem in November to help us reach a climate agreement that will mark a turning point in the creation of a more prosperous, safer, fairer and sustainable future," Ana Toni, the summit's CEO, said in a statement.
The intrigue: The career of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost — now Pope Leo — offers a breadcrumb trail showing his interest in climate.
- Last year, per the Vatican's official news service, he told an environmental seminar that it's time to move "from words to action."
- He called for "reciprocity" with nature, cautioned against harms from technology and praised the Vatican's installation of solar panels and use of EVs.
- In 2017, he reposted an X (then Twitter) post encouraging President Trump to read Francis' encyclical.
What they're saying: Arun Agrawal, a Notre Dame professor of development policy, offered initial thoughts on the new American pope while cautioning that it's early days.
- "[W]e can expect some continuity but we should also expect both innovation and new ideas to come from the new Pontiff as he leads the Vatican to address sustainability challenges," he said via email.
- He expects Leo's work to be informed by his long service in Peru and his background in church governance.
- Leo has "intimate familiarity with context where marginality, poverty, and vulnerability are widespread" that will inform his thinking on climate, water, sustainability and more.
What we're watching: Francis' encyclical had rather skeptical — or at least complicated — feelings about technology, and Agrawal sees some connective tissue between the two men.
- "I think both Pope Francis and Pope Leo have a critique of simply technological innovation being enough. Accordingly, the innovation has to be in our institutions and our hearts and minds and how to connect these changes to those in the world," he said.
The bottom line: There's no good way to gauge whether popes can really influence climate policies. But based on comments pouring in late Thursday, a number of activists have faith.
