Pope promotes renewable energy and storage development to eliminate fossil fuels

The Pope also highlighted the importance of localised renewable energy use, for example when cooperatives can ensure local self-sufficiency and sell surplus energy. Flickr: Raffaele Esposito
Pope Francis has called for the worldwide development of renewable energy sources and adequate energy storage technologies in order to drastically reduce fossil fuel consumption and the related emissions from carbon dioxide and other polluting gases.

In an encyclical about climate change today, the Pope said highly polluting technologies using coal, oil and, to a lesser degree, gas, need to be progressively replaced “without delay”, even though there is “minimal access” to clean and renewable energy globally.

He pushed for the establishment of mechanisms and subsidies to help take advantage of abundant solar energy in developing countries in order to give them access to technical assistance and financial resources for this technology transfer.

He said: “The costs of this would be low, compared to the risks of climate change.”