Such policies, Beisner wrote, would reduce “access to the abundant, affordable, reliable energy absolutely necessary for any society to rise out of poverty, and available now and for the foreseeable future almost entirely from fossil fuels.” More than 85 percent of all energy use in the world is from fossil fuels, he wrote.

WASHINGTON (BP) — Pope Francis’ proposals to remedy climate change will likely harm those he most wants to help, according to a Baptist seminary president and an evangelical spokesman.

The pope issued the Vatican’s first encyclical on environmental issues — “May You Be Praised (Laudato Si’): On Care for Our Common Home” — in mid-June, prompting widespread praise from those who stress manmade causes of global warming.

Others, including R. Albert Mohler Jr. of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and E. Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation found shortcomings in the letter — especially regarding the effects on the poor of the Roman Catholic leader’s prescriptions.

Pope Francis’ 191-page letter on care for God’s creation addressed climate change in only four of its 246 sections. While he did not focus on government efforts, the pope endorsed public policies in one of those sections to dramatically reduce the “emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases” in the next few years — policies such as the development of sources of renewable energy.

The pope connects the plight of the poor with threats to the environment in his encyclical, but Mohler and Beisner said his recommended policies could actually perpetuate poverty.

“While fossil fuels are surely contributing to an increase in carbon emissions, it is hardly helpful to tell the poorest nations among us that they must forego immediate needs for refrigeration, modern medicine, and the advances of the modern age that have so extended and preserved life,” Mohler said in written comments. “At this point, there is no alternative to dependency on fossil fuels, and this is as true for the Vatican as for the United States and other advanced economies.”

A fossil fuel is material — such as oil, coal or natural gas — collected from the remains of ancient animals and plants.

Beisner, founder of the Cornwall Alliance, wrote a piece in The Washington Times that the policies endorsed by the pope “would slow, stop, or reverse the rise out of absolute poverty (less than $1.25 per person per day) for the world’s 1.3 billion poorest who have no access to electricity and rely on wood and dung as primary cooking and heating fuels.” Smoke from such sources, Beisner wrote, “kills about 4 million yearly.”

In addition, Beisner stated in the article, about 2 billion people “who left absolute poverty for merely severe poverty over the last 25 years would find their progress checked or, more likely, would be driven back into absolute poverty.”

Such policies, Beisner wrote, would reduce “access to the abundant, affordable, reliable energy absolutely necessary for any society to rise out of poverty, and available now and for the foreseeable future almost entirely from fossil fuels.” More than 85 percent of all energy use in the world is from fossil fuels, he wrote.

Read More