Gov. Gavin Newsom accused former President Donald Trump of “overt corruption” in a speech Thursday at a climate summit of Catholic officials and international leaders, leveling his criticism of the Republican leader in the hallowed halls of the Vatican.
The California governor referenced news stories alleging that Trump recently solicited campaign donations from oil executives and at the same event promised to roll back climate protections if elected in the 2024 presidential election.
“He openly asked them for a billion dollars to roll back the Biden administration's environmental progress, the environmental progress that we have made over the course of the last half-century,” Newsom said. “Open corruption. “A billion dollars to pollute our states, to pollute our country, and to pollute this planet and roll back progress.”
The governor spoke at a three-day summit “From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience” hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Newsom's appearance and comments will likely elevate his standing as a climate leader on the world stage, and his speech received applause from the international gathering of governors, mayors and policy experts.
With temperatures and carbon emissions rising around the world, the goal of the conference is for state and local governments to share best practices on combating climate change and adapting to higher temperatures, rising seas and a more volatile environment.
Newsom's speech also matched the tenor of a critique of the oil industry he delivered last fall at the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit in New York.
“It's because of the burning of 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 address the problem on a global scale and they have been fighting every advance and we have to denounce it.”
Bob Salladay, Newsom's top communications adviser, said his earlier candid assessment in New York of the industry, which he said was misleading everyone, caught the attention of the Vatican and is one of the reasons he was invited to speak at the climate summit. .
The setting for his speech, in a carpeted auditorium at the Vatican that normally hosts meetings of bishops, marked a stark contrast to the marble floors and Renaissance murals that lined Clementine Hall, where Newsom spoke with Pope Francis on Thursday morning. .
In a speech to government leaders and climate scientists at Clementine Hall, Pope Francis called the destruction of the environment an offense against God.
“This is the question: 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 audience at an Apostolic Palace near St. Peter's Basilica.
The body of a Pope is placed in the room for private visits after his death. It is also the same room that former President Obama visited in 2009.
Pope Francis called the refusal to protect the most vulnerable who are exposed to climate change caused by human activity a “serious violation of human rights.”
He said about a billion people in the richest countries “produce more than half of the world's heat-trapping pollutants.” The poorest, he stated, contribute less than 10% and suffer 75% of the resulting damage.
Pope Francis thanked participants for their efforts to transition to climate resilience through equity and social justice.
After the speech, Newsom and Siebel Newsom walked down a hallway of ornate stone tiles 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 issued a moratorium on the death penalty and closed California's execution chambers in 2019.
A procession of attendees also greeted the Pope, who took the time to shake hands with everyone in the room.
The pope signed a planetary pact at the end of his speech, which Newsom and other government leaders also signed on Thursday.
Wade Crowfoot, California Secretary of Natural Resources, described the pact as an unprecedented agreement between governors, mayors, indigenous leaders and international scientists to work together to confront climate change with a focus on resilience and equity.
Crowfoot and Lauren Sanchez, Newsom's top climate adviser, also participated in hours of meetings at Wednesday's conference and spoke on a panel with other U.S. state officials.
Newsom will host a state climate summit in Southern California this fall as a follow-up to work on the Vatican conference. The state will invite local leaders and California experts.
“We are carrying the torch of subnational leadership to California, where it belongs, to convene scientists, local governments and leaders to address the climate threat that is the existential crisis of our time,” Sánchez said.
