Pope Francis has recently appointed two Extraordinary Commissioners for the creation of an agrivoltaic plant on a Vatican-owned property outside of Rome. In a letter titled “Fratello Sole” (“Brother Sun”), published by the city state on 28 June, the pontiff entrusts the President of the Governorate of Vatican City State and President of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See with building a solar power plant on the territory of Santa Maria di Galeria, a 424-hectare property that currently houses the Vatican Radio installation.
As the Pope asks for an agrivoltaic plant, the project foresees the use of the land for suitable agricultural purposes alongside the solar panels that will be installed. Once completed, it should provide “not only the power supply of the radio station there, but also the complete energy sustenance of Vatican City State”, his Holiness wrote.
Calling for a global transition to a sustainable development model, the Pope noted that “Mankind has the technological means to deal with this environmental transformation and its pernicious ethical, social, economic and political consequences, and, among these, solar energy plays a key role.”
There is a need to make a transition to a sustainable development model that reduces greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, setting the goal of climate neutrality.
Pope Francis
Although no more details have been revealed about the project, once completed, if it indeed manages to complement existing solar infrastructure within Vatican City to completely power it via renewable sources, the city state would become the 8th country in the world achieving this milestone, according to the Independent. The other countries powered at least 99.7% by renewable energy are: Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Ethiopia, Iceland and Congo.
The Papal dedication to the environment was made clear in another letter in 2015. Citing a “strong scientific consensus indicating a troubling warming of the climate system, (…) a steady rise in sea levels and an increase in extreme weather events”, he invited all of humanity to become aware of the need to make “changes to lifestyles, production and consumption, in order to counteract global warming, which has a pervasive use of fossil fuels as one of its main causes.”
Cementing global warming as one of the main issues the Holy City addresses, on 6 July 2022, the Vatican joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a global agreement among nations to address “dangerous human interference with the climate system.” More recently, in May 2024, Pope Francis acknowledged the difficulties of changing the world in an interview with CBS News. “[World leaders] hold a conference, everybody is in agreement, they all sign, and then bye-bye”, he critiqued, calling global warming an “alarming” issue that can no longer be ignored.
