The Vatican goes green: The Pope will create a new solar plant on the outskirts of Rome

Pope Francis wants the Vatican City to run on solar energy and to achieve this, Solar panels will be installed on a Vatican property, on the outskirts of Rome. The energy generated could cover all the energy needs of Vatican City.

In an apostolic letter issued on his own initiative, the Pope said: “A transition towards a sustainable development model that reduces the Emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, aspiring to climate neutrality”.

The construction will take place on a Vatican property located about 11 kilometers from Rome, in the area of ​​Santa Maria di Galeria, whichIt is currently used for Vatican Radio broadcasting..

The system will combine the production of renewable electricity with the needs of the underlying agricultural land. For construction, the Pope has given two special commissioners full authority to direct the project.

The Pope has a commitment to the environment

In his letter, the pontiff goes on to say: “Humanity possesses the technological means to confront this environmental transformation and its pernicious ethical, social, economic and political consequences, and solar energy plays a fundamental role among these solutions.

Pope Francis established his position on the climate crisis already in 2015when he said he would “renew the dialogue” about how we are “building the future of the planet.”

“Exist a strong scientific consensus which indicates a worrying warming of the climate system. In recent decades, this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in sea level and an increase in extreme weather events,” the Pope wrote in a letter called Laudato Si’ in May 2015.

In July 2022, things were formalized when the Vatican joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a global agreement between nations to address “dangerous human interference in the climate system.”