Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu delivered homework assigned to them last year by Pope Francis at a summit on climate change.
Last spring, Healey and Wu attended the pope’s summit on climate change in Rome, where they signed a call to action committing to mitigation and adaptation strategies. On Thursday, they provided updates on their progress at the ResilientMass Summit hosted by UMass Boston in Dorchester.
“Our transportation plan that I just filed includes a proposal to fund $200 million to replace and upgrade culverts and small bridges statewide,” Healey explained in her remarks, adding that about half of the 25,000 culverts statewide aren’t big enough to manage water flow during large storms. “When rain falls and things start to swell, these culverts get filled up and then they overflow. And this has been some of the cause of some of the worst damage that we’ve seen around Massachusetts.”
Healy was the first governor to ever appoint a cabinet-level climate chief and establish the country’s first green bank dedicated to affordable housing.
The summit puts local and state officials into the same room with scientists and academics for interactive discussions on how to best make their communities more climate resilient. The event is part of a series of ten global summits happening throughout the year, sponsored by the Vatican.
Wu gave her remarks while holding her 2-month-old daughter, Mira. “If you do the math, she was on the Vatican trip as well,” she joked.
Wu framed her remarks around how critical climate resiliency is right now for all young people.
“The urgency that we all share to move fast, to build the world that they deserve sits very heavily on my shoulders,” she said. “It’s not just the urgency to deliver a world that is free of the kinds of challenges and harms and suffering that we already see in so many communities because of unmitigated climate change. But it’s also that sense of joy and wonder that can only come from Mother Nature that you see most often in a child’s eyes.”
The mayor also touted Boston as the first city in the country to pass net zero carbon zoning for new commercial construction. Wu explained that will allow the city to grow and meet the urgent need for new housing, while also reducing building sector emissions.
“Starting this summer, every single new big building built in the city must be net zero before they cut the ribbon and open their doors,” she said.
Climate resilience has been a major cause for Pope Francis, according to Joachim von Braun, president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
“We are part of the Vatican, but we are not religious academies. Our intention is to advance science with attention to moral issues,” von Braun shared at the summit. In a 2015 Encyclical Letter written by the pope , Braun says the pope stresses the theological, philosophical and scientific reasons for working to address the warming climate.
“Everyone out there has a vested interest in climate resiliency,” Healey said. “I believe that we’re working more collaboratively than ever before, and we are not slowing down, because today, partnerships are more important for the United States than ever before.”
Wu echoed the importance of partnership in her final remarks.
“Every family and resident, every public official and private partner — every single one of us needs to be ready to roll up our sleeves and pitch in to protect all of us,” she said.
Scholars from the Pontifical Academies will gather again at the Vatican in 2026 to share their findings from these summits and form a master plan of action, according to event organizers.
