https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326585/pope-leo-xiv/
Pope Leo XIV has made no delay in picking up the climate mantle of his predecessor, Pope Francis. Just two months after being elected in May, he struck a deal in July that would turn a 1,000-acre field north of Rome into a solar farm—and make Vatican City the world’s first carbon-neutral state.
He also inaugurated a new 135-acre ecological training center in the gardens of Castel Gandolfo that will focus on sustainable farming and ecological stewardship, realizing the ecological project first spearheaded by the late Pope Francis in 2023.
Then in October, at a conference marking the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si’—Pope Francis’s landmark encyclical that called for global stewardship of the planet—Leo urged individuals to rise to the challenge and demand climate action.
“Everyone in society, through non-governmental organizations and advocacy groups, must put pressure on governments to develop and implement more rigorous regulations, procedures, and controls,” he said. “Citizens need to take an active role in political decision making at national, regional, and local levels. Only then will it be possible to mitigate the damage done to the environment.”
