Empresas y finanzas

The Vatican to Become World's First Carbon Neutral Sovereign State



    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 Bukk
    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.