Pope Francis attends a special audience with the members of the UCIIM Catholic union of Italian secondary school teachers
In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis attends a special audience with the members of the UCIIM Catholic union of Italian secondary school teachers, in the Pope Paul VI hall, at the Vatican, Saturday, March 14, 2015.

Scientists weary after years of often vicious opposition by doubters of their climate-change findings see this year as crucial to the planet’s future because of a religious document expected from Pope Francis on Thursday.

The rare encyclical, or teaching letter, expected to promote climate action as a moral imperative could do more to slow global warming than international negotiations this year to limit greenhouse gas emissions, scientists say.

“The encyclical is going to go out to over 1 billion Catholics — that’s a way of getting a message across to a segment of society that the scientific community could never do,” said an excited Jeff Kiehl with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “I mean it’s just unbelievable.”

Watch: Pope Francis: Global warming a threat and urges action

Read more:
Scientists say pope may be the key player on climate change

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