Synod office announces plan to reduce assembly’s carbon footprint

Sep 29, 2023

VATICAN: With more than 450 people gathering at the Vatican from around the world for a month-long meeting, the General Secretariat of the Synod said it is taking action to reduce the environmental impact of the synod assembly.

The organisers have decided to pursue an initiative to offset the CO2 emissions that this event will create, the General Secretariat of the Synod announced September 19. Offsetting carbon emissions means doing an activity to compensate for the CO2 or other greenhouse gases one emits.

The project will install efficient cooking stoves and water purification technologies in Kenya and Nigeria, in line with the “integral ecology” promoted in Pope Francis’ encyclical on the care of creation, Laudato Si’.

Making the synod assembly event plastic free, eliminating waste, using only recycled paper and only when necessary, are part of the plan, but with more than 50 per cent of the assembly’s calculated carbon footprint coming from long-distance travel, the Vatican has secured financial support from the Switzerland-based SOS Planet Foundation to generate offsetting carbon credits by sending “efficient cooking stoves and water purification technologies to households, communities and institutions” in Kenya and Nigeria.

Announcing the carbon-offset plan, the synod office also noted that the synod’s opening day is when Pope Francis has said he will publish a follow-up document to his 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home.

The choice of fuel-efficient cook stoves and water purification systems “responds to the criterion of integral ecology” Laudato Si’ called for by combining concern for the environment, attention to local needs and concrete assistance to people, the synod office said. -- NCR/Aleteia