By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Arnold Schwarzenegger came to the Vatican on Tuesday to throw his weight behind Pope Leo's efforts to encourage world leaders to address global climate change and transition away from fossil fuels.
"Every single one of (the) 1.4 billion Catholics can be a crusader for the environment and can help us terminate pollution," the former California governor, actor and bodybuilder said, referencing one of his blockbuster film roles, the Terminator.
"God has put us in this world to leave this world a better place than we inherited it," said Austrian-born Schwarzenegger, who is a Catholic.
"I'm so excited … that the Catholic Church and the Vatican are getting involved in this because we need their help."
Schwarzenegger, a Republican Party member who is a longtime proponent of addressing climate change, spoke at a press conference ahead of a three-day Vatican meeting this week on the issue, where he will offer a keynote address alongside Pope Leo.
The three-day event is tied to the 10th anniversary of a major environmental document by the late Pope Francis, which was the first papal text to embrace the scientific consensus about climate change and urged nations to reduce their carbon emissions.
Leo, the first pope from the United States, has also emphasised the Church's environmental teachings.
Earlier this month, Leo opened a Vatican-run ecological training centre on the sprawling grounds of a Renaissance-era papal villa in Castel Gandolfo, an Italian lakeside town about an hour's drive from Rome.
Some 400 faith and civil society leaders are expected to take part in this week's Vatican event, including Brazil's environment minister, the director of the U.N.'s Faith for Earth coalition, and the CEO of the European Climate Foundation.
Maina Talia, climate change minister for the Pacific Island nation Tuvalu, told Tuesday's press conference that his country is already suffering dramatic impacts from rising sea levels.
"Climate change is not a distant scenario," he said. "We are already drowning. Our survival depends on urgent global solidarity."
(Reporting by Joshua McElweeEditing by Gareth Jones)
