Rome - The Vatican City State, a member of the United Nations and a participant at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, has already committed itself to be the first carbon-neutral state in the world and is well on its way to that goal. A reforestation firm is planting thousands of trees in a desolate area along a river in Hungary to compensate in carbon consumption what the Vatican emits in carbon gases each
year.
The Vatican City State, though the smallest state in the U.N., uses huge amounts of energy as one of the most heavily visited tourist areas in the world. It must also maintain its tight complex of administrative offices, shrines, museums and St. Peter's Basilica. A carbon neutral foot print will be achieved through the Vatican strategy of buying carbon credits (in this case the credits were donated) because it's territory is too small in itself to maintain new tree plantings.
