Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday accused former President Donald Trump of “open corruption” in a speech at a climate summit of Catholic officials and international leaders, elevating his opposition to the Republican leader in the Vatican’s hallowed halls. criticism.
The California governor cited news reports that Trump had recently solicited campaign donations from oil executives and vowed at the same event to abandon climate protections if elected in the 2024 presidential race.
“He’s openly asking them for $1 billion to reverse the environmental progress that the Biden administration has made and the environmental progress we’ve made over the past half century,” Newsom said. “Openly corrupt. A billion dollars to reverse.” Polluting our state, our country, polluting the planet and hindering progress.
The governor was speaking at the three-day “From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience” summit organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Newsom’s appearance and comments are likely to boost his standing as a climate leader on the world stage, with his speech drawing loud applause from an international gathering of governors, mayors and policy experts.
As global temperatures and carbon emissions rise, the purpose of the conference is for local and state governments to share best practices for combating climate change and adapting to rising temperatures, rising sea levels and a more unstable environment.
Newsom’s speech also matched the tone of his criticism of the oil industry at last fall’s United Nations Climate Ambition Summit in New York.
“It’s because of the burning of natural gas, the burning of coal, the burning of oil,” Newsom said at the Vatican. “We have the tools. We have the technology. We have the ability to solve this problem globally and they have been fighting against every advancement and we have to point that out.
Bob Salladay, Newsom’s chief communications adviser, said his candid assessment of the industry earlier in New York, which he said drew everyone’s fools, caught the attention of the Vatican. This is one of the reasons why he was invited to speak at the climate summit.
His speech took place in a carpeted auditorium in the Vatican where bishops usually gather, in stark contrast to the marble floors and Renaissance frescoes of the Clementine Hall, where Newsom spoke Thursday morning. There was a conversation with Pope Francis.
In a speech to government leaders and climate scientists at Clementine Hall, Pope Francis cast the destruction of the environment as an offense against God.
“The question is: are we working for a culture of life or a culture of death?” Pope Francis said.
Newsom and his wife, first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, sat in the second row of the auditorium at the Apostolic Palace near St. Peter’s Basilica.
After the pope’s death, his body was placed in the hall for private viewing. This is the same room that former President Obama visited in 2009.
Pope Francis has called the refusal to protect the most vulnerable people facing human-induced climate change a “gross violation of human rights”.
About a billion people in rich countries “produce more than half of the world’s heat-trapping pollutants,” he said. Poorer people accounted for less than 10% of the damage but suffered 75% of the damage, he said.
Pope Francis thanked participants for their efforts to transition to climate resilience through equity and social justice.
After the speech, Newsom and Sibel Newsom walked down an ornate stone-tiled aisle to the front of the room, where the governor spoke briefly with the pope. The governor said Pope Francis praised his administration’s work on the death penalty.
Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019 and closed execution chambers in California.
A parade of attendees also greeted the pope, who took the time to shake hands with everyone in the room.
The pope signed a global compact at the end of his speech, which Newsom and other government leaders also signed on Thursday.
California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot called the agreement an unprecedented agreement among international governors, mayors, Indigenous leaders and scientists to work together to combat climate change, focusing on Flexibility and fairness.
Crawford and Newsom’s top climate adviser Lauren Sanchez also participated in several hours of Wednesday’s meeting and spoke during a panel discussion with other U.S. state officials.
Newsom will host a state climate summit in Southern California this fall as a continuation of the work of the Vatican Conference. The state will invite local California leaders and experts.
“We will carry the torch of local leadership back to California where it belongs, convening scientists, local governments and leaders to address the climate threat that is the existential crisis of our time,” Sanchez said.
