The President of Peru met with Pope Francis in the Vatican Friday to speak of the Pope’s upcoming trip to his country, with special emphasis on climate change and economic inequities in Latin America.
President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, whom the Peruvian press refers to as “PPK,” met previously with Vatican personnel in charge of preparing the Pope’s visit to Peru in January 2018, and then was received by the Pope in the Apostolic Palace on Friday morning.
In a brief television message prior to his departure from Lima, President Kuczynski highlighted the importance of climate change, and indicated it would be central to his dialogue with the pontiff.
I will speak with him about “the ravages of climate change, and why all humanity must unite to improve its climate future on this earth we inhabit and on which we must watch over our human patrimony,” a few hours before departure.
This is not the first time the Peruvian president has sounded the alarm on climate change. In an address before the UN General Assembly in New York last September, Mr. Kuczynski said that “climate change is something we see every day in Peru, in the melting of our glaciers and in the extreme cold that sometimes occurs in the south of the country that forces us to reallocate our scarce resources to face these challenges.”
On the return flight from his recent visit to Colombia, Pope Francis spoke powerfully about global warming, insisting that people and nations have a ‘moral responsibility’ to combat climate change.
“Whoever denies climate change should ask the scientists, who speak with great clarity and precision on this,” Francis told reporters during his in-flight presser returning to Rome.
Asked by a journalist whether there is “a moral responsibility for political leaders who deny that climate change is the work of man and refuse to cooperate with other nations” (in an apparent reference to President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord), the Pope said that “climate change can be seen in its effects and we all have a moral responsibility in making decisions.”
In his Q&A, the Pope went on to speak of a climate change report that asserted “we only have three years to turn back, or there will be terrible consequences.”
“I do not know if the three years are true or not, but if we do not go back, we are going down!” Francis said. “Climate change is seen in its effects, and we all have a moral responsibility in making decisions. I think it’s a very serious thing.”
In his evaluation of climate change, Pope Francis said: “Each person has his own moral responsibility and the politicians have theirs. Let each one ask the scientists and then decide. History will judge their decisions.”
Pressed further by another journalist for his opinion on why governments are so slow to act on climate change, the Pope made reference to the Bible.
“A line from the Old Testament comes to my mind: man is stupid, a stubborn one who does not see. He is the only animal that falls into the same pit twice,” Francis said, although it was not clear as to which biblical passage he was referring.
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