Pope Francis announces plan to run Vatican entirely on renewable energy

Pope Francis recently appointed two Extraordinary Commissioners to build an agrivoltaic power plant on Vatican property outside Rome. In a letter titled “Fratello Sole” (“Brother Sun”), published by the city-state on June 28, the pope entrusts the President of the Governorate of Vatican City State and the President of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See with building the solar power plant on the grounds of Santa Maria di Galeria, a 424-hectare property that currently houses Vatican Radio.

Since the Pope is asking for an agrivoltaic power plant, the project envisages using the land for suitable agricultural purposes, along with solar panels that will be installed. Once completed, it should provide “not only power to the local radio station, but also the entire energy maintenance of the Vatican City State,” His Holiness wrote.

Calling for a global transition to a model of sustainable development, the Pope noted that “humanity has the technological means to face this environmental transformation and its devastating ethical, social, economic and political consequences, and among these, solar energy plays a key role.”

It is necessary to move towards a sustainable development model that reduces greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere and sets the goal of climate neutrality.

Pope Francis

While no further details about the project have been released, once completed, if it is indeed possible to supplement the Vatican’s existing solar infrastructure to be fully powered by renewable sources, the city-state would become the 8th largest city in the world to do so.^t country in the world to reach this milestone, according to the Independent. Other countries powered by at least 99.7% renewable energy include Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Ethiopia, Iceland and Congo.

The pope’s commitment to protecting the environment was clearly expressed in another letter in 2015. Citing “the strong scientific consensus indicating a worrying 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 implement “changes in lifestyle, production and consumption to counteract global warming, one of the main causes of which is the widespread use of fossil fuels.”

Establishing global warming as one of the main issues the Holy City addresses, on July 6, 2022, the Vatican joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a global agreement among nations aimed at addressing “dangerous human interference in the climate system.” More recently, in May 2024, Pope Francis admitted in an interview with CBS News that changing the world comes with its own difficulties. “(World leaders) convene a conference, everyone agrees, everyone signs, and then they say goodbye,” he criticized, calling global warming an “alarming” problem that can no longer be ignored.