Pope Francis urges action on climate change on visit to US

Pope Francis has called for further action on climate change saying that it was “a critical moment of history”, on the first day of his visit to the United States.

Speaking to a crowd of more than 11,000 people on the White House South Lawn, the pontiff said the problem could “no longer be left to a future generation”.

President Barack Obama said the Pope reminded people “that we have a sacred obligation to protect our planet”.

The Pope will later conduct the first canonisation on US soil.

Speaking in English - one of the few times the Argentine pontiff is expected to do so during the week’s many events Pope Francis praised President Obama for recent proposals aimed at tackling air pollution.

Time remains to make the changes required but the Pope warned this was “a critical moment of history”.

The morning began with the pontiff emerging from the Apostolic Nunciature - the Holy See’s equivalent of an embassy around 0900 local time.

Clad in his traditional white cassock, Pope Francis spent several minutes greeting wellwishers who had assembled behind temporary fencing in front of the diplomatic complex.

After shaking hands and giving hugs and kisses to the largely young crowd, the pope boarded a modest hatchback trailed by a convoy of large security vehicles and made the 15-minute drive through Washington on streets that had been cleared of traffic for the occasion.