Vatican Commits To Net-Zero Emissions By 2050

In a video message sent to participants in a virtual climate summit on the weekend, Pope Francis has committed Vatican City to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. 2050??

The Climate Ambition Summit 2020 was held on the weekend, which brought together leaders “ready to make new commitments to tackle climate change and deliver on the Paris Agreement”. The event was co-convened by the United Nations, the United Kingdom and France in partnership with Chile and Italy.

Australia wasn’t invited, apparently due to a perceived lack of action on climate issues at a Federal level. Early this month, Prime Minister Morrison said Australia would attend the summit to “correct mistruths“, but that obviously didn’t work out as planned.

Participants were to set out new and ambitious commitments under the three pillars of the Paris Agreement: mitigation, adaptation and finance – and the guidelines of the summit stipulated there would “be no space for general statements”.

Prime Minister Morrison shrugged off the snub, stating the only approval he seeks for the policies of his government is that of the Australian people. This being the case, he may want to take note of the recent findings of the recent Climate Of The Nation survey that indicated 68% of Australians supported a national target for net zero emissions by 2050.

Anyhow, among the leaders to get a guernsey was Pope Francis, who sent a video message along with other participants that can be viewed here. My foreign language skills being what they are, I’ve referred to a rather vague news item released by the Vatican to get an idea of what the Pope had to say.

Aside from announcing the net-zero emissions by 2050 commitment and scant detail on current Vatican efforts, Pope Francis urged world leaders to seize the moment.

“The time has come to change direction,” said the Pope. “Let us not rob younger generations of their hope in a better future.”

The message from Pope Francis follows a number of official communications from him over the years mentioning his climate concerns. In 2015, he penned the encyclical letter “Laudato Si’,” which among other issues lamented environmental degradation and climate change.

A Tiny State With Vast Resources On Tap

Vatican City, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, is the world’s smallest state/country, covering just 49 hectares (121 acres). It has a population of around 825, but sees millions of visitors a year.

Efforts to green the Vatican began before Pope Francis’s reign. Predecessor Pope Benedict XVI also recognised the threat posed by climate change and was a reasonably early adopter of solar power. Back in 2008, 2,400 solar panels were installed on the Vatican’s “Nervi Hall”, but there have been no further installations that I’m aware of.

Another project under Pope Benedict XVI’s reign was the ill-fated Vatican Climate Forest. A donation by a carbon-offsetting company, it was to be sized to offset the carbon emissions generated by the Vatican – but it was never planted.

The Holy See (the universal government of the Catholic Church that operates from Vatican City) can be a bit slow off the mark in reacting to crises in a positive way that matches its clout. While it’s great Pope Francis has been and continues to make all the right noises about climate change, a 2050 target for net-zero emissions for the Vatican may seem a little weak given the vast financial and other resources it can tap into.

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/vatican-net-zero-mb1798/