A mood of pessimism already shrouds the upcoming United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, where world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, will try to agree to next steps in the urgent fight against global warming. These summits often don’t live up to their expectations, even as the stakes for their success or failure grow ever higher. It seems unlikely that Glasgow will produce the major commitments experts say are necessary to keep temperatures from rising above dangerous thresholds and to help protect vulnerable communities from the worst impacts of the changing climate.
Before Biden arrives in Glasgow, however, he will make a visit that might help lift some of the gloom. The president meets Pope Francis on October 29 in the Vatican. As a devout Catholic, Biden has personal reasons to look forward to the meeting. But the president and his Catholic-heavy entourage are also eager to access the pope’s status as a global influencer: Francis leads the only world religion recognized as sovereign under international law, and the Holy See has some diplomatic clout and influence within the United Nations’ family of organizations. The White House hopes that the Vatican can amplify Biden’s most aspirational goals, especially around climate change.
