"At Vatican, Mayors Pledge Climate Change Fight"

"VATICAN CITY — About 60 mayors from around the world gathered here on Tuesday and pledged to combat global warming and help the poor deal with its effects, at a conference swiftly organized by the Vatican barely a month after Pope Francis’ sweeping encyclical on the environment.

The two-day conference, which also focused on fighting forms of modern slavery, was not the first time that the Vatican had organized a meeting on the issue. But it was the first time that it specifically invited local officials, hoping to mobilize grass-roots action and maintain pressure on world leaders for action ahead of a global summit meeting on climate change scheduled for December in Paris.

In Tuesday’s declaration, the mayors pledged to urge world leaders to pass a 'bold climate agreement that confines global warming to a limit safe for humanity, while protecting the poor and the vulnerable from ongoing climate change that gravely endangers their lives.'"

Gaia Pianigiani reports for the New York Times July 21, 2015.

SEE ALSO:

"Pope Urges U.N. To Take Strong Action on Climate Change" (Reuters)

"Pope Laments 'Meaningless Lives' in Tying Human Trafficking To Climate Change" (Guardian)

"World Mayors at Vatican Urge 'Bold Climate Agreement'" (AP)