PRESS COMMUNIQUÉ
GOVERNORATE OF VATICAN CITY STATE
Vatican City State has been committed for many years to promoting sustainable development through ecological policies to safeguard the environment and to provide energy-saving strategies.
Applying the principles of the Encyclical “Laudato si’” and the Apostolic Exhortation “Laudate Deum”, it is among the first states in the world to pursue sustainability projects by looking for innovative and sustainable solutions that will help to change the way we work, while ensuring the protection of the “Common Home” by adopting projects that, also through the use of reliable and eco-compatible technologies, enable the impact on the environment of human activity to be reduced substantially.
The ratification of the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change and the Paris Agreement constitutes the bridge between environmental policies and the Holy Father’s indications and recommendations.
The Governorate is committed to achieving climate neutrality through the responsible use of natural resources, the implementation of projects aimed at energetic efficiency, and the updating of our technological assets, sustainable mobility, the diversification and sourcing of cleaner or alternative energy products for transport, waste disposal and the development of concrete future reforestation projects.
Achieving neutrality will require investment in technological facilities using renewable energy, offsetting emissions produced in one sector by reducing them in another, but above all promoting electric and hybrid mobility.
For this reason, the Governorate has launched a sustainable mobility development programme entitled “Ecological Conversion 2030”, also designed to reduce the CO2 footprint of its fleet of vehicles.
To this end, it intends to: gradually replace its own state-owned cars with electric vehicles, in order to make its car fleet carbon-neutral by 2030; implement its own recharging network in the state and extra-territorial areas by extending its use to its own employees; and ensure that its energy needs come exclusively from renewable energy sources.
The Volkswagen Group - which aims to become a carbon-neutral company by 2050 and reduce the carbon footprint of its vehicles by 30 per cent by 2030 - is the first strategic partner for the project to renew the state's car fleet with Volkswagen and Škoda brand vehicles through medium- and long-term rental.
Today, a partnership agreement is signed with the Volkswagen Group, as part of the sustainable mobility development programme, which is one of the steps the Governorate has taken to concretely reduce the impact of human activity on the environment.
