According to a story on EuroNews, the Vatican City is the latest to join a group of 8 states in committing to generate 100% of its electricity from renewable sources – the 8 being Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia, Costa Rica and South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands.
This they will achieve by putting solar panels on a Vatican-owned property outside of Rome and channel the electricity generated into the entire Vatican estate in and out of Rome.
“The most difficult thing is to integrate and find spaces to build photovoltaic infrastructure in places that are already heavily built up,” says Barbara Marinali, President of Italian energy supplier ACEA, who are supporting the Vatican in this project.
Looking more widely at the performance of different states, a table on Wikipedia shows a wide disparity between nations, from the 8 with 100% at the top of the table to states such as Algeria, Bahamas, Oman, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia with less than 2% of their electricity from sustainable sources, at the bottom. Spain, for all its sun and extensive renewables industry, comes in at 73rd position with a rather disappointing 47%.
Salvatore Farina from the Vatican City State Administration sees a role for the church in setting an example for others: “There are commitments that the Vatican City State has undertaken in the international arena. And we are not only fulfilling them, but we are also setting an example for other international realities.”
This is also an example for the churches here in Spain to follow. If the Vatican can deal with the complexities of existing buildings then surely we can too; if the Vatican can set an example to other international bodies to follow, then surely we can set an example to other more local ones.
The Anglican Church has produced a standard for churches’ environmental sustainability. Called EcoChurch, the standard covers five areas of church life:
- Worship and teaching
- Buildings and energy
- Land and nature
- Community and global engagement
- Lifestyle,
and provides a mechanism for churches to benchmark current environmental performance and take steps to improve.
We of all people should be taking climate change seriously. If we believe that the earth is the Lord’s and is loaned to us for our lifetimes, we should be taking all the steps we can to prepare our institutions for change. In this respect it is surely our job to run towards the problem, not hide out faces from it, and the Vatican has taken a courageous step in the right direction.
See the story in EuroNews here. See List of countries by renewable electricity production on Wikipedia here.