Pope Francis’ address before a joint session of Congress Thursday is being spun by activists and Democrats as a stern, political warning on climate change that Republicans can’t afford to ignore.
“The pope’s call to act on our moral obligation to curb the pollution that drives the unjust impacts of climate change is resonating with Americans outside Washington,” says David Doniger with the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council. “Our political leaders in Washington ignore his call at their peril.”
Pope Francis is in Washington to meet with President Obama, which he did on Wednesday, before shifting to address a joint session of Congress on Thursday. As he did at the White House, the pope will address climate change as a key priority, and express support for the president’s Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of the administration’s climate change agenda.
That has some Republicans grumbling, but environmentalists say the visit underscores the GOP leadership’s tone deafness when it comes to the issue of climate change, and say Republicans must either support President Obama’s emission regulations or get out of the way.
They also want to use the pope’s remarks to put pressure on countries to make progress at a major meeting of the United Nations later this year in Paris. That meeting will be used to hash out a major deal between the nations on climate change.
The groups don’t want GOP actions to send the wrong signal and undermine Obama’s efforts to secure an international deal, and they hope the clear message from Pope Francis will make them think twice about opposing Obama’s efforts in Paris.
So far, Francis’s visit does seem to be having some positive spillover effects for environmentalists. For one, business groups are clamoring to be seen as supportive of his call.
Ann Kelly, a federal affairs official with Ceres, a group representing business on environmental and climate issues, stressed more people agree on the need to move to a “low carbon economy,” and said companies are using the pope’s visit to underscore their commitment to that goal. Several companies on Wednesday made commitments to use 100 percent renewable energy amid the pope’s visit, including chemical giant DuPont, technology leaders Microsoft, Etsy, Starbucks and others.
Kelly says this is creating “market pull” that is encouraging the states to take steps to lower emissions. She added that nearly 400 companies sent letters to governors urging them to implement the Clean Power Plan, and to not give into Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s push for states to resist it.
Company officers and investors wrote to governors to get them “moving on the Clean Power Plan,” she said. “That’s unprecedented.”
She also said she hopes Francis lays on the “guilt.” She thinks the pope’s speech will get House Speaker John Boehner, who is Catholic, and McConnell to admit to the “sin of climate denial.”
Pressuring GOP leaders may become increasingly easy as acceptance of climate change spreads. Jeremy Symons, associate vice president at Environmental Defense Fund, said a recent Reuters poll shows around 47 percent of Republicans agree that climate change is occurring.
Some in the Republican party are beginning to take note of this, Symons and others say. Last week, Rep. Chris Gibson of New York introduced a resolution in the House acknowledging that climate change is manmade, and laying out a set of principles for the GOP to begin to coalesce around.
Symons and a number of other environmentalists say the significance of the Gibson “coalition” cannot be overstated. “You are seeing one of the first coalitions [to] form over this issue” among House Republicans, he says.
Symons also points out that now there are Republican businessmen like Jay Faison popping up to push for action on climate change through his Clear Path Foundation.
Observers say there is talk that the Gibson coalition could grow to as many as 90 House members. Gibson’s office did not respond to an email requesting comment at press time.
Some environmentalists say that even without the pope’s help, they’re on the way to a Paris meeting on climate that faces no real risk of being disrupted by Republicans.
Doniger says McConnell himself “understands that nearly all states will move forward to curb power plant carbon pollution, because the Clean Air Act requires [the Environmental Protection Agency] to regulate the power plants directly if a state doesn’t act.” Other say the recent decision by Rick Snyder, the Republican governor of Michigan, to move ahead under the EPA plan underscores the fact that it is happening.
“He may try before Paris to pass legislation to repeal that key Clean Air Act guarantee,” Doniger said of McConnell in an email. “But he lacks the votes to pass such a bill, and certainly can’t overturn a presidential veto. So any such move will fail.”
