THE WORLD HAS PASSED a grave new milestone: every month from June 2023 to June 2024 was the earth’s hottest month in over 100,000 years. Across the globe and here at home, the reality of the extreme danger we face is clear: our common home, our collective future, is in peril.
The world is responding with urgency, but we need to do more and balance our priorities better. We need to improve our adaptation, our support of cities and states, and our use of nature-based solutions.
Climate mitigation refers to efforts to decarbonize the economy, cut fossil fuel use, and remove short-lived climate pollutants. This is where most of the attention has been, mitigation alone is now insufficient. We need a much sharper focus on adaptation and climate resilience.
Likewise, focusing solely on national strategies is out of balance. We must highlight the of role cities and states – the first responders to climate disasters – to get ahead of the ever more destructive climate shocks. Furthermore, technological innovation by itself will not get us out of the climate crisis. It needs to be balanced with nature-based solutions.
The good news is we know how to do this.
The Global Climate Resilience Summit in Vatican City, convened by Pope Francis and hosted by the Pontifical Academies in May, highlighted the magnitude of the crisis. Bringing together scientists, social scientists, mayors, governors, indigenous tribal leaders, health care professionals, and, yes, children and youth, this chorus of global voices explored the complexity of the problem and exchanged transformative strategies.
The summit underscored the world’s interconnected challenges: climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental pollution, and food and water insecurity. Its key message was a need for urgent action of a different kind, both in focus and implementation.
Local leaders spoke frankly about the human suffering and ecosystem destruction caused by climate change. Chief Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapo nation in Brazil’s Mato Grosso called for an end to Amazon deforestation and embraced Indigenous knowledge and nature-based solutions for sustainability.
Mayors from the Americas, Asia, and Europe shared best practices for protecting water, air, food and energy, and community health systems. Children and youth from Indigenous communities and cities, including Boston, reminded us of our ethical obligations to address the climate crisis for the well-being and flourishing of future generations. One of us, Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts, outlined her appointment of the nation’s first cabinet-level climate chief, who is leading a coordinated strategy to integrate climate policy across all state government departments.
The historic “Planetary Call to Action for Climate Change Resilience,” signed by the Holy Father, underscored global urgency. The protocol aims to shift focus from crisis to resilience through immediate actions, including:
Embracing a one-earth approach to guide urgent action and policy change, ensuring everyone’s right to climate resilience.
Bending the curve of warming by phasing out fossil fuels and rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions to enable sustainable living.
Reducing four short-lived climate pollutants to halve the rate of warming in the short term.
Removing 300 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next 40 years.
Safeguarding vital ecosystems like the Amazon and Congo basins through nature-based solutions.
Strengthening adaptation strategies, including climate education and sustainable consumption.
Creating a new financial architecture to support the global south and small island states.
American leaders are ready to put these strategies to work locally. Healey and UMass Boston will host the first regional climate summit, convening municipal officials, private sector partners, and others to develop adaptation blueprints to accelerate resiliency across the region.
Massachusetts, already a global leader in climate policy, is now leading innovation in governance. Healey created the nation’s first green bank dedicated to affordable housing, launched a $10 million Climate Careers Fund with social finance to support green economy jobs, and proposed a first-of-its-kind $1.3 billion investment in climatetech. These regional convenings will take the state and the country’s leadership to the next level.
The world is at a crossroads. Now is the time to meet our greatest global threat with renewed courage and new ways of thinking. We must work together and take local action on the ground. Guided by the pope’s call to action, American leaders from Massachusetts and beyond are stepping up.
Maura Healey is the governor of Massachusetts and previously served two terms as Massachusetts attorney general. Marcelo Suárez-Orozco is chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Boston, a member of the executive council of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and co-author of the Vatican’s “Planetary Call to Action for Climate Change Resilience.”
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