Chancellor of the Pontifical
Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social
Sciences Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez told ANSA in an interview
that he believes the Pope will convince US President Donald
Trump to change his mind on climate change.
Pope Francis dedicated his 'Laudato Si' encyclical to climate
change and will be meeting with Donald Trump on May 24, who has
signed an executive order dismantling Obama-era environmental
legislation.
In the eyes of Sanchez Sorondo, the choices adopted on
climate by Trump "are against science, even before being against
what the Pope says. In the election campaign he even said it was
a Chinese invention to criticize America. But this president has
already changed about several things, so perhaps on this as
well".
He added that "today the Chinese are actually very
collaborative as concerns the commitments they took on climate
with the Paris Climate Conference (the Conference of the
Parties, or COP2)".
The Argentinian bishop, who spoke last week at the University
of the Holy Cross at an event marking the two-year anniversary
of the Pope's encyclical, said that "when he was preparing the
'Laudato Si', oil lobbies did everything in their power to
prevent the Pope from saying what he did, meaning that climate
change is caused by human activity that employ fossil fuels.
Perhaps the oil companies wanted a 'light' encyclical' - a
romantic one on nature that wouldn't say anything at all.
Instead, the Pope followed what the scientific community says.
If the president does not follow science, then that is the
president's problem."
On his opinion that the Pope will manage to "convince" Donald
Trump, Sorondo said that "they will come to an agreement, since
the president claims to be a Christian, and so he will listen to
him."
Monsignor Sorondo, who for almost 20 years has been at the
head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical
Academy of Social Sciences, works closely with the Pope, who has
entrusted him with such key issues as global warming, the
migrant emergency, human trafficking, natural resource
management and participatory democracy, underscored that today
"even large capitals that have thus far invested in fossil fuels
are beginning to be concerned about the effects of climate
change and see new investment and research opportunities to find
different energy solutions that are 'clean' or renewable."
Some countries are ahead of the rest, he said, citing
Germany, but the trend is gaining traction elsewhere as well,
"in part because energy from fossil fuels (coal and oil) costs a
great deal".
"In America, oil companies," he said, "in addition to being
those that earn the most, receive the most advantages and are
subsidized by the state. The result is that the poor pay for the
rich."
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences focuses on these issues
and Sorondo announced that a meeting would be held in November
on the effects of climate change on human health.
He noted that Trump's turnaround on the COP21 commitments
taken by Obama was made possible by the fact that the latter
"had used a decree without going through Congress, which his
successor has now been able to do".
The danger is now that "the US president influences others,
and scientific findings are being cast doubt on" and "truths
begin to be denied".
Sorondo stressed that it was during the Paris conference that
climate change deniers were found to have been paid by oil
sector lobbies.
He added that global warming was leading to the migration
crisis and new forms of slavery for "tens of millions of
people".
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