Environmental Leaders Mourn Death of ‘Green Pope’

Climate advocates around the world lauded Pope Francis’ legacy in addressing climate change, protecting nature, and combating poverty, following his passing on Easter Monday.

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Tributes have been pouring in from around the world after the Vatican announced the passing of Pope Francis early on Monday.

The 266th pope, who died aged 88, was celebrated as “an unflinching global champion of climate action” and praised for his dedication in highlighting the threats to the planet and its most impoverished residents.

In a statement, the COP30 Presidency said that Pope Francis “led not only as an example of human dignity, respect, and acceptance, but as a climate activist, a defender of nature, forests, indigenous peoples, and traditional communities.” The statement also traced a direct line from the Pope’s second encyclical, Laudato si’ (“Praise Be to You”) to the adoption of the historic Paris Agreement in 2015. 

Published in 2015, the encyclical explains, “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.” According to the late Pontiff, the correct international response to climate change was “an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.”

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will host the COP30 summit in November, said Francis had spoken about climate change with “simplicity”, “courage” and “empathy.”

In 2015, the Pope addressed the UN General Assembly, urging global action to protect the environment and end the suffering of forgotten populations. “The present time invites us to give priority to actions which generate new processes in society, so as to bear fruit in significant and positive historical events. We cannot permit ourselves to postpone ‘certain agendas’ for the future,” he told world leaders.

“I sat in the IUCN seat at the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 when Pope Francis impressed the absolute imperative of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and more ambitious environmental action upon world leaders,” UN Environment Programme’s Executive Director Inger Andersen recalled in a post on LinkedIn. She described it as “one of the most moving and powerful moments that I have experienced in the General Assembly Hall.” 

“Pope Francis … understood that protecting our common home is, at heart, a deeply moral mission and responsibility that belongs to every person,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, selected his papal designation in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, a patron saint of animals and ecology. The choice reflected his own reverence for nature. “Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically,” the Pope said in Laudato Si’. “I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.”

In a statement on his website, former US Vice President Al Gore, whose film An Inconvenient Truth brought climate activism to millions, celebrated the Pope’s environmental efforts. “His humble leadership on the climate crisis sparked a moral movement that will continue to light the way forward for humanity. His advocacy of social and economic justice inspired billions around the world.”

Environmental organizations also spoke about Francis’s environmental record. A local branch of The Nature Conservancy quoted Pope Francis on its Facebook page, calling him “The Green Pope”, while Greenpeace New Zealand re-published an article highlighting the role of all types of religious organizations in protecting the environment. 

Jesuit universities, including Fordham University – the alma mater of US President and climate change denier Donald Trump – also referenced the late Pope’s influence on their own sustainability journeys. John Cecero, Vice President for Mission Integration and Ministry at Fordham, said on the university’s website that Pope Francis “prompted the creation of Fordham’s council to carry out the seven-year effort toward greater sustainability that Francis called on all Catholic universities to pursue.”

Featured image: Wikimedia Commons.

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