Boston Mayor Takes City's Climate Record to Vatican Summit

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu presented the city's climate agenda to an international audience for the first time on Thursday, speaking at a Vatican summit on climate resilience.

Wu took part in a discussion titled "Governance, Energy," where she described several of Boston's climate policies. Among them were an opt-in utility program that lets residents choose cleaner energy and an ordinance requiring large buildings to gradually cut their emissions.

In a social media post, Wu said participants also heard from mayors and governors around the world about conditions on the front lines of climate change. She described both the risks and challenges communities face and "inspiring stories of progress" unfolding daily.

The Boston Globe, reporting from the Vatican, said Wu also spoke about her own family. With so little snow this year, she said, her 6- and 9-year-old sons are missing the frosty winters Boston has known. "The energy I'm talking about now is the energy of a mother who doesn't want to have had her last snow day ever with her kids," she said, according to the Globe. She added that it was the energy of a mom who wants her children to know how beautiful the Charles River looks frozen over on a clear December night.

Wu traveled to the city-state with Gov. Maura Healey and state Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer for the "Vatican Climate Summit: From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience." Two Boston Public Schools students from BCLA-McCormack, recently renamed Ruth Batson Academy, also attended as part of an eight-person youth group called "Voices of the Youth."

Healey delivered a keynote at the summit's opening session on Wednesday and announced a new initiative, the Climate Careers Fund. In a statement, she said the clean energy revolution depends on workers such as train operators, farmers, electricians, heat pump installers and wind turbine technicians, and that the state needs people with the skills to fill those jobs.

The multi-day conference is hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and its Academy of Social Sciences, which is led by UMass Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also attended. According to the Globe, Wu is the only American mayor at the gathering.

Her Italian itinerary continues after the conference. Wu is scheduled to meet Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri and to visit Sulmona on Saturday, a town of about 25,000 east of Rome with ties to Boston's North End. She will then travel to Coreno Ausonio, a small town south of Rome where her children have family roots; their great great-grandparents emigrated from there. The town was liberated from Nazi occupation 80 years ago, and Wu and her family plan to join an anniversary celebration on Sunday and meet the local mayor.

"Our goal in Boston is to make our city a home for everyone from every background, every generation, every walk of life," Wu said, per the Globe, "and for me, it has been a treasure to represent the jewel of our home."