California helps lead U.N. mission on climate change

Pope Francis’ clarion call on climate change has been duly hailed as a potential game changer in the long-elusive effort to gain a global commitment for action. His 184-page encyclical, released last week, framed the issue in stark moral terms. The former chemist warned of the planet devolving into “an immense pile of filth” from its wealthier economies’ overreliance on fossil fuels.

As the United Nations prepares to gather world leaders in Paris for yet another conference on the issue this fall, its climate-change chief is citing another factor that could help galvanize support from wary nations: the California experience.

“From an international perspective, developing countries are the ones who are going to have to make most of the changes, because that is where most of the energy demand is in the future; that is where most of the growth is going to be in the future,” said Christiana Figueres, who leads the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change.

June 20, 2015