The Vatican to Become World's First Carbon Neutral Sovereign StateHis Most Reverend Eminence Cardinal Paul Poupard accepts Vatic

  
    
  
  
    
      By agreement with the Vatican, Planktos/KlimaFa is now pleased and 
      honored to announce that the Holy See plans to become the first entirely 
      carbon neutral sovereign state, and it has chosen KlimaFa ecorestoration 
      offsets to achieve this historic goal. In a brief ceremony on July 5th 
      the Vatican declared that it had gratefully accepted KlimaFa's offer to 
      create a new Vatican Climate Forest in Europe that will initially offset 
      all of the Holy See's CO2 emissions for this year.
    
    
      His Most Reverend Eminence Cardinal Paul Poupard presided at the event 
      and stated, “As President of the Pontifical 
      Council of Culture; I am honoured to receive this donation from the 
      leaders of Planktos-KlimaFa. This donation means an entire section of a 
      national park in central Europe will be reforested. In this way, the 
      Vatican will do its small part in contributing to the elimination of 
      polluting emissions from CO2 which is threatening the survival of this 
      planet.
    
    
      "As the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, had recently stated, the 
      international community needs to respect and encourage a ‘Green 
      Culture,’ characterized by ethical values. The 
      Book of Genesis tells us of a beginning in which God placed man as 
      guardian over the earth to make it fruitful. When man forgets that he is 
      a faithful servant of this earth, it becomes a desert that threatens the 
      survival of all creation…"
    
    
      Pope Benedict XVI's inspiring guidance strongly reinforces an increasing 
      Vatican environmental concern articulated by Pope John Paul II in his 
      2001 Blueprint for the New Millennium, "How can we remain indifferent to 
      the prospect of an ecological crisis which is making vast areas of our 
      planet uninhabitable and hostile to humanity?" Cardinal Renato Raffaele 
      Martino, head of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, reaffirmed 
      this warning at the Vatican Conference on Climate Change and Development 
      this April, "For environment… read 
      Creation… Man must cultivate and safeguard 
      God's Creation."
    
    
      According to Planktos CEO and KlimaFa Managing Director, Russ George, 
      "The Holy See's increasingly creative environmental leadership is both 
      insightful and profound. Not only is the Vatican steadily reducing its 
      carbon footprint with energy efficiency and solar power, its choice of 
      new mixed growth forests to offset the balance of its emissions shows a 
      deep commitment to planetary stewardship as well. It eloquently makes 
      the point that ecorestoration is a fitting climate change solution for a 
      culture of life."
    
    
      Dr. David Gazdag, KlimaFa's Managing Director in Budapest, added, "We 
      believe this Climate Forest initiative clearly reflects the Vatican's 
      deep commitment to both environmental healing and the welfare of the 
      poor. Besides their local ecological and global climatic benefits, these 
      projects offer many rewarding new eco-forestry jobs to struggling rural 
      communities and increasing eco-tourism employment opportunities as these 
      beautiful woodlands mature."
    
    
      The new Vatican Climate Forest will be created in Hungary's Bükk 
      National Park under the auspices of the KlimaFa Climate Parks program. 
      Its dimensions will be determined by the Vatican’s 
      2007 energy usage and the success of its current emission reduction 
      efforts. KlimaFa has received EU JI Track 1 approval to plant thousands 
      of hectares of new native species, mixed growth forests under the 
      permanent protection of European national park systems. Its initial 
      projects are being conducted in collaboration with Hungary's government, 
      Academy of Sciences and National Parks Directorate.
    
    
      Planktos/KlimaFa has further committed to work with the Vatican and the 
      Pontifical Council of Culture to develop methods to calculate the CO2 
      emissions of individual Catholic churches and offer ecorestoration 
      options to turn their carbon footprints green.
    
    
      Budapest-based KlimaFa, Kft is the EU forest subsidiary of climate 
      ecorestoration pioneer Planktos Corp (OTCBB:PLKT), which also has 
      offices in the US and Canada.
    
    
      Television footage of the Vatican ceremony with Cardinal Poupard and 
      Planktos/KlimaFa’s director is now available 
      to media outlets.
    
    
      For further information please visit www.klimafa.com 
      and planktos.com.