Her Worship the Mayor of Kingston, Senator Councillor Dr. Angela Brown Burke, J.P. is currently participating as a panelist/presenter in a symposium on climate change and modern slavery at the Casina Pio IV in the Vatican headquarters of the Pontifical Academies of Science and Social Sciences in Rome, Italy.
The symposium will bring together, for the first time at the Vatican, more than 70 Mayors of the world's major cities, together with local Governors and representatives of the United Nations, to share experiences and make proposals to fight against climate change and modern slavery.
Mayor Brown Burke, who has recently completed doctoral studies in adult educational literacy at the National-Louis University in Chicago, has been asked to present on Governance and Financing. She pointed out that Jamaica is constantly reminded of its contribution to, and the effects of human-induced, climate change, as the country experiences hotter days and nights, less rainfall and longer periods of drought.
“And even as global and economic development top of the agenda, we are mindful of our symbiotic relationship with the environment – the oxygen that is produced by plants is vital to our continued existence and plants cannot survive without the carbon dioxide we exhale,” Mayor Brown Burke said.
“I am grateful that we (Jamaica) have been afforded the opportunity to participate in these meetings where we can explore and share ideas on how we can live up to our God-given mandate as ordained custodians of the earth, “ the Mayor added.
The Pontifical Academies of Sciences and of Social Sciences invited these leaders to the conference, in the Casina Pio IV, in collaboration with the United Nations, on the theme: “Prosperity, people, and planet: achieving sustainable development in our cities.”
The Workshop will contribute to the debate on the moral dimension of environmental protection, in the context of Pope Francis’ Encyclical on this theme.
It will help to build a global movement across all major religions to focus on the eradication of modern slavery, sustainable development and climate change throughout 2015 and beyond.
Explaining the reason behind the invitation to the Mayors, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academies, noted that in his encyclical ‘Laudato Si’, Pope Francis has highlighted the effects of global warming and, in several studies, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has highlighted the effects of global warming accompanied by the rising sea level.
The Bishop noted that in terms of the phenomenon of climate change, it is “difficult not to link it to extreme weather events, such as prolonged drought, heat waves and destructive storms, which are becoming more and more frequent.”
He said that the Vatican is urging humanity “to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes, which produce or aggravate it.”
The Symposium, with the focus on Cities and Sustainable Development, is organized by the Pontifical Academy in conjunction with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Other panelists include Mayors: Kagiso Thutlwe of Gaborone; Alfred Vanderpuije from Accra; Christiane Osuka Raponda from Libreville; Aliou Sall from Guediawaye-Dakar; Parks Tau from Johannesburg; and Governor Robert Beugre Mambe from Abidjan.
This visit follows the 4th Summit of Global Alliance of Mayors and Leaders from Africa and of African Descent (Global Alliance), which was held in Accra, Ghana in June where Mayor Brown Burke was appointed a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Alliance and subsequently given the task of mobilizing Mayors and Leaders from the Caribbean.
Government of Jamaica 