Giving a practical interpretation to Pope Francis’ widely discussed encyclical on Care for Our Common Home, a Catholic parish under Palakkad diocese has achieved net zero emission.
The first of its kind endeavour in India, as those behind the effort has described it, is meant both as a practical demonstration to carry forward the Pope’s vision and also as a lesson in environmental education.
Fr. Saji Joseph of the St. Joseph’s parish, Ponkandam, which will be officially declared net zero parish, said on Tuesday that the carbon-neutral project in the 140-family parish will be presented in detail before a national conference on ecology jointly by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and Dharamaram Vidya Kshetram in Bengaluru, from Tuesday.
Below national average
Homes in the parish have been subjected to green auditing as part of the project and all people were given environmental education to take care of various aspects of their lives with an eye on emissions. Initial results showed that per capita emission in the St. Joseph’s parish is 887.69 kg/CO2e, less than the national average per capita emission, claimed Fr. Joseph.
Carbon sequestration possibilities for each home will be calculated. Fr. Joseph said the village where the parish is located is a green one with mixed crop, capable of substantial carbon sequestration. The green auditing will be completed with the support of voluntary agency SIN and Equator Geo, a start-up that is helping people, especially farmers, engage in carbon trading.
The green auditing will be completed soon with the help of satellite-based geographic information system (GIS) as well as an application for carbon calculation developed by Equator Geo. The Ponkandam parish’s achievement will coincide with the 50th year of its establishment.
It is expected that the St. Joseph’s parish will become an example for other parishes as, Palakkad diocese will gradually use the success of the experiment to implement similar measures in other parishes and even to engage parishes in trading carbon credits.
