VATICAN (JULY 21, 2015) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK MAYOR, BILL DE BLASIO, SAYING: “I humbly give all respect to his holiness, Pope Francis, who has awakened people across the globe to the dangers we face as a planet. He has brought us together today in that spirit of action and I think it is fair to say he is the most powerful voice on this earth for those all over the world whose voices are not being heard.” // (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK MAYOR, BILL DE BLASIO, SAYING: “His holiness challenges us. He challenges us not to be captives, not to be slavish to consumerism, as citizens to rise above it. He also challenges us not to be captive as leaders to powerful corporate interests. The encyclical is not a call to arms it is a call to sanity. It is a reminder that we as leaders have a sworn duty to protect. But how can we protect our people if we accept a status quo that is slowly killing our earth.” // “We are called here to take Laudato Si (Pope Francis’ Encyclical on climate change) and give it life, to systematically address the danger of climate change with every tool we have. And it is increasingly clear that we, the local leaders of the world, have many tools, more than we may have in fact realized, and that we must use them boldly, even as our national governments hesitate.” // “And today I’d like to add to all that we are doing in New York, I’d like to announce our next big step - we are committing to 40 by 30, on our way to 80 by 50 - a reduction of our emissions levels by 40 percent by the year 2030.” //