Democrats hopeful pope's visit will end climate change denial in Congress

Republicans manage expectations on political nature of Pope Francis's address to Congress as moderates slowly break with party leadership on climate stance

Pope Francis's arrival in Washington on Tuesday has reinforced hopes that one of the last great bastions of climate change denial - the US Congress - may be on the verge of crumbling.

As the pope touched down in the US from Cuba, Democratic leaders in Congress and environmental campaigners were optimistic that Francis would keep the focus on his core themes of the global economic order, poverty and environmental degradation over the next six days, and so widen the emerging fractures in the Republican wall of denial.