Leading figures from the the oil industry are due in the Vatican this week for a summit on climate change.
The guest list for the 8-9 June gathering includes the Chief Executive of BP, Bob Dudley, Exxon Mobil’s Darren Woods and Stanley Fink, the chief of the multi-trillion investment giant BlackRock. They are expected to be addressed by Pope Francis towards the end of their discussions.
Francis has made protecting the environment a key priority of his papacy, writing an encyclical letter on the topic, “Laudato si’". He was also a major supporter of the Paris climate change agreement.
The gathering “energy transition and care for our common home” is being hosted by the Catholic University of Notre Dame and will be attended by Cardinal Peter Turkson, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Francis’ outspokenness on the environment and searing critiques of unfettered capitalism have seen the Vatican face pressure from lobbyists for big businesses. The meeting also comes three weeks after Cardinal Turkson’s department released a stinging rebuke of the global financial system.
But the cardinal has consistently stressed that the Church is not opposed to business but has called on them to ensure profits serve the common good, a point consistent with the social teaching of Catholicism. And in 2012, Cardinal Turkson wrote a book titled “Vocation of the Business Leader”.
The forthcoming conference is to take place at the Casino Pio IV, a villa inside the Vatican gardens decorated with medieval frescoes and ancient Roman sculptures.
In this setting the Pope is likely to offer the executives and investors both a mix of moral persuasion and opening up channels of dialogue.
Many of the big oil companies are betting on an increased demand for gas - the least polluting fossil fuel - and to a lesser extent renewable energy in order to meet global targets of net zero emissions set down by the Paris agreement.
A number of Church groups have joined the Catholic Impact Investing Collaborative which manages 50 billion dollars in investment funds, a number of which have divested from fossil fuels.
Others joining the dialogue include: Lord Browne, BP’s long serving leader, the Chief Executive of Norway’s Equinor and executives from Italian energy company Eni, Royal Dutch Shell and Mexico’s Pemex.
Throughout his papacy, Francis has met with a number of prominent business leaders including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google’s holding company Alphabet and Tim Cook of Apple.
Loading ...
