Vatican City will soon be 100 percent solar-powered, becoming the eighth country to achieve this milestone. Pope Francis stresses the ethical and social necessity to fight climate change so that the plan in the Vatican’s new solar plant project underlines their global commitment to climate neutrality and sustainability. No longer depending on traditional forms of energy, this city-state joins a small group of countries that draw all their electricity from renewable sources. For example, leaked copies of an encyclical by Pope Francis say that in his letter, “Fratello Sole” or Brother Sun, he details plans for a solar installation on 424 hectares of Holy, See-owned land near Rome. This would supplement existing solar installations within the city-state, providing total energy autonomy.
In a message to mark the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on Sept. 1, the pontiff said, “To achieve zero net emissions means there must be environmental protection and restoration to counterbalance our impacts”. From this vantage, he called for radical transformation, telling energy and oil executives at the Vatican for a two-day gathering that these were “a competitive layer and will not allow for a transition in the fight against climate change”. “We have to shift to a model of sustainable development and [to] reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero,” Francis continued. “The human family has the technical ability and capability to achieve this transition, and solar energy can assist in this.”
Once the solar plant in the Vatican is finished, it will bring Vatican City into an elite group. The only other countries that currently generate over 99.7% of their electricity from renewables are Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Ethiopia, Iceland, and Congo. According to Professor Mark Z. Jacobson from Stanford University, at least 40 other countries generate more than 50% of their electricity from non-fossil resources like wind, hydro, geothermal, or the sun. “We don’t need miraculous technology,” Jacobsen told the Independent in April, “everything just needs to be electrified and that electricity generated from wind, water, and the sun.” Environmental stewardship has been one of the priorities of the papacy of Pope Francis. He warned in his encyclical – published in 2015 – that the world faces a “grave and relentless” crisis, if it is not resolved. “We have yet to move all to be close friends with home,” Pope Francis noted. The Vatican’s commitment to sustainability was strengthened in 2024 as it ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
In addition to creating more solar panels, the project at hand achieves the Vatican’s energy independence. It also calls attention to using the past as a point of relevance with a present future.
