The passage of the pandemic through the United StatesCrisis on the U.S.-Mexico borderClimate Summit, human ecologyA few days after U.S. President Joe Biden convened the Climate Leaders Summit on April 22-23, which included a video message from Pope Francis, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City and Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, respective chairs of the Domestic Justice and Human Development and International Justice and Peace Committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), have issued a statement in support of the Holy Father.
In the joint statement, they affirm that they share the message issued by the Holy Father to the leaders gathered at the White House Climate Leaders' SummitFrancisco affirmed that "our concern is to see that the environment is cleaner, healthier and preserved, and to take care of nature so that it takes care of us".
The bishops have praised this common concern and the Biden Administration's decision to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. In addition, the Climate Leaders Summit "reflects renewed U.S. leadership on climate change," the bishops say, as well as "the pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 2005 levels by 2030 is an ambitious national goal and is welcome."
In keeping with the Holy Father's call for integral ecology, Coakley and Malloy remind that the movement toward a net-zero emissions world must also emphasize just transition so that working families who depend on the energy sector are not left behind.
