Pope Leo XIV Might Be the Climate Champion We Need
The new pontiff appears inclined to follow in his predecessor’s green footsteps.
How green is my papacy?
Photographer: Antonio Masiello/Getty Images
In picking a new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, the Vatican had a chance to honor the late Pope Francis’ legacy as the greenest pope in modern history. In choosing the American (and Peruvian) Cardinal Robert Prevost — henceforth known as Pope Leo XIV — his fellow cardinals appear to have seized that opportunity. Humanity’s hope of avoiding the worst of climate change can only benefit.
We’ll learn more about the pope’s views in the days to come. But he is on record telling a seminar last November that the world must move “from words to action” on climate change. In the same speech, he warned that humanity’s “dominion over nature” shouldn’t be “tyrannical” but “a relationship of reciprocity.” He also touted the Vatican’s green record, including purchases of solar panels and electric vehicles — a fleet that now includes the first all-electric Popemobile.