Heartland Institute Heads to Rome to Advise Pope Francis on Climate Policy

Published April 24, 2015

World’s Leading Scientific ‘Skeptics’ of Man-Caused Global Warming
Invite Public and Press to Open Events April 27 and 28
Just Outside the Vatican

The Heartland Institute is sending a team of climate scientists to Rome next week to inform Pope Francis of the truth about climate science: There is no global warming crisis!

Monday, April 27, 1:00 p.m. GMT +2 (7:00 a.m. ET)
Hotel Columbus
Via della Conciliazione
33 – 00193
Rome, Italy

A slate of independent scientists and policy experts offer a “prebuttal” to the Vatican’s April 28 “Climate Summit.”

Tuesday, April 28, 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. GMT +2 (7:00 a.m. ET)
Palazzo Cardinal Cesi
Via della Conciliazione n. 51 (Piazza S.Pietro)
00193
Rome, Italy

Climate scientists and policy experts lay out a detailed case explaining why climate science does not justify the Holy See putting its faith in the work of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Both events are open to all press and the general public. Go to Heartland’s Vatican Environment Workshop page for real-time updates, presentations, and podcasts.

For more information, please contact Jim Lakely at [email protected] (preferred) or 312/731-9364 (in Rome beginning Monday, April 27) or Gene Koprowski at [email protected] or (office) 312/377-4000 or (cell) 312/852-2517 (in Chicago).

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Tuesday, April 28 is hosting a workshop titled “Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity” to “raise awareness and build a consensus” among people of faith that human activity is causing catastrophic global warming. The Heartland Institute – the world’s leading think tank promoting scientific skepticism about man-caused global warming – is bringing real scientists to Rome next week to dissuade Pope Francis from lending his moral authority to the politicized and unscientific climate agenda of the United Nations.

The Vatican’s summit features two men – Ban Ki-Moon, secretary-general of the United Nations, and Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs – who refuse to acknowledge the abundant data showing human greenhouse gas emissions are not causing a climate crisis and there is no need for a radical reordering of global economies that will cause massive reductions in human freedom and prosperity.

Heartland’s experts will send this message to Pope Francis: Please do not put the enormous weight of your moral authority behind the discredited and scandal-prone United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Instead, speak out for the poor and disadvantaged of the world who need affordable and reliable energy to escape grinding poverty.

“The Holy Father is being misled by ‘experts’ at the United Nations who have proven unworthy of his trust,” said Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast. “Humans are not causing a climate crisis on God’s Green Earth – in fact, they are fulfilling their Biblical duty to protect and use it for the benefit of humanity. Though Pope Francis’s heart is surely in the right place, he would do his flock and the world a disservice by putting his moral authority behind the United Nations’ unscientific agenda on the climate.

“People of all faiths have a moral calling to continually seek the truth,” Bast said. “That is why Heartland is sending a contingent of real scientists to Rome next week. We are bringing the Vatican a message of truth for all with open ears: The science is not settled, and global warming is not a crisis. The world’s poor will suffer horribly if reliable energy – the engine of prosperity and a better life – is made more expensive and less reliable by the decree of global planners.”


The Heartland Institute is a 31-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our website or call 312/377-4000.