"Latinos are poised to be leaders in their communities and nationally on environmental issues," said one panelist at this week's Latino Leader Gathering sponsored by Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.
Faith leaders welcomed a new Environmental Protection Agency limit on soot. The change is estimated by 2032 to prevent as many as 4,500 premature deaths and 800,000 asthma cases each year.
John Podesta, President Joe Biden's pick as new adviser to the president for international climate policy, is seen as knowledgeable about Catholic teaching on environmental issues and committed to the message of Laudato Si'.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced a $1 million grant to leaders of the Church of God in Christ as part of a national program to plant and maintain trees in American cities. Vilsack said 'structuring this program so that it's empowering more tree planting and more workforce development gives us the opportunity to partner with the church.'
John Kerry, a Catholic politician who has welcomed and amplified Pope Francis' intervention on the issue of climate change, will be leaving his post as the lead climate negotiator for the United States.
While the COP28 president and numerous countries hailed the U.N. summit's agreement to shift away from fossil fuels as a historic breakthrough, Catholic officials present viewed it with mixed reactions.
Nations meeting in Dubai should adopt a new treaty charting the end of fossil fuel use, a group of Catholic institutions wrote in a letter to the president of the COP28 climate change summit.
Countries are the primary focus at the climate COPs, but they're far from the only participants. Since the 1992 Earth Summit, people of faith have been regular participants.
Delivering a message Pope Francis had hoped to offer in person, Cardinal Pietro Parolin urged the United Nations climate summit in Dubai to achieve a "breakthrough" and become a turning point for the world.