By Brian Roewe for Earthbeat.
Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration.
The San Diego Diocese has divested its financial holdings from the fossil fuel industry, the first Catholic diocese in the United States to make public such an economic move in response to Pope Francis' repeated calls for an end to the era of fossil fuels in the face of climate change.
While more than 350 Catholic institutions worldwide have announced divestment commitments, the omission of any U.S. diocese has been notable, given the nation's status as the global leader in fossil fuel production and largest historical source of planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions.
The Southern California diocese, led by Cardinal Robert McElroy, in 2021 began to explore the process of removing direct and indirect investments in companies involved in the extraction and production of coal, oil and gas from its portfolio of trust funds, retirement funds and health funds.
By the end of 2022, it had eliminated all direct investments in fossil fuels and reduced its indirect holdings, through mutual funds, to 3%, surpassing its goal of less than 5%. The diocese does not disclose the size of its investment portfolio. Throughout the past year, diocesan officials and its investment advisors continued to monitor the funds to ensure they were clean of direct fossil fuel stocks and meeting the mutual funds targets.
That monitoring alongside a desire not to prematurely declare mission accomplished led the diocese to refrain discussing its divestment until recently, Kevin Eckery, diocesan communications director, told EarthBeat.
The pivot in investment policy away from fossil fuels was done, Eckery said, "in keeping with the Holy Father's ideas about stewardship of the environment and not wasting resources," along with addressing human-driven climate change.
"This wasn't what we wanted to be invested in and we had other things that we wanted to do," he said.
Along with divesting, the diocese is looking to create a long-term program to promote investing in environmentally responsible companies.
"Pope Benedict XVI says that all purchasing is a moral act. And so we have to think about also the way that our financial behavior has an impact around the world," Christina Bagaglio Slentz, the diocese's associate director for creation care, told EarthBeat.
As part of their discernment, officials with the San Diego Diocese examined the socially responsible investment guidelines of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that were updated in 2021. Those guidelines advise Catholic institutions to "consider divestment from those companies that consistently fail to initiate policies intended to achieve the Paris Agreement goals," referring to the 2015 global pact where all nations agreed to reduce their emissions to limit global warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and ideally 1.5 C (2.7 F).
Fossil fuel production is on pace to double the level allowed under the 1.5 C warming limit.
José Aguto, executive director of Catholic Climate Covenant, said the San Diego Diocese's divestment was "significant and an important marker."
"Pope Francis signals quite clearly, saying so starting in [his encyclical] Laudato Si', that we need to move away from fossil fuel production," Aguto said, adding, "Our Catholic institutions have a moral obligation to heed that call, to do what we need to do to divest, to move away from fossil fuels and into a renewable energy future."
Slentz called divestment "part of a broader effort to care for creation" within the San Diego Diocese.
To date, roughly 70% of its 97 parishes have installed solar panels, and the pastoral center gets nearly 90% of its electricity from renewable sources. It has also encouraged parishes to start creation care teams and is working to reduce single-use plastics throughout the diocese.
San Diego is one of at least 20 U.S. dioceses to enroll in the Vatican's Laudato Si' Action Platform, a multiyear project, endorsed by Francis, for Catholic institutions and individuals to live out the messages in the pope's 2015 encyclical, "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home."
In Laudate Deum, his recent apostolic exhortation "on the climate crisis," Francis stated, "The necessary transition towards clean energy sources such as wind and solar energy, and the abandonment of fossil fuels, is not progressing at the necessary speed."
The pope called on nations at the COP28 United Nations climate summit in December to eliminate the use of fossil fuels, with the Vatican delegation in Dubai supporting the first-ever agreement by countries to work to transition away from fossil fuels.
Burning fossil fuels is the primary driver of climate change, as the greenhouse gas emissions that are released trap heat in the atmosphere. Since the late 1800s, average global temperature has risen between 1.1 and 1.2 degrees Celsius and by the early 2030s is on track to surpass 1.5 C - a point where scientists say millions more people will be put at risk from far more destructive, and possibly irreversible, climate-related impacts, like stronger storms, rising sea levels and more intense heat waves and droughts.
The U.S. is the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for roughly a quarter of overall global emissions. It ranks second in present-day emissions, behind China, and is the largest producer and consumer of oil and gas in the world.
Nearly 360 Catholic institutions globally have announced fossil fuel divestment commitments, including 66 dioceses and eight national and regional bishops' conferences. So have 36 Catholic organizations in the U.S., among them nine universities (University of San Diego in 2021) and a dozen religious congregations and provinces.
In August, EarthBeat reported the San Diego Diocese was in the process of divesting, a development revealed as it was honored for its actions in response to Laudato Si'.
But the diocese waited to make the move public until it was certain it had achieved its divestment goals. News was featured in a late-December article in the Times of San Diego, and a Jan. 1 column in The Southern Cross, the diocesan newspaper.
Eckery said the returns in the newly divested portfolio have been "acceptable to us, so we don't feel we've made any sacrifice by doing it."
But beyond finances, he said McElroy and the diocese determined "it was the right thing to do."
Anna Johnson, North American senior programs manager for the Laudato Si' Movement, which keeps a database of Catholic divesting institutions, said, "We are very excited that San Diego has pursued and completed divestment, particularly in following our Catholic teachings responding to the ecological crisis that we are facing."
Aguto with Catholic Climate Covenant said that while divestment is an important step, it cannot be the only one. He argued its impact is somewhat limited due to the majority of fossil fuel reserves under control of nationally owned oil and gas companies that do not have stockholders.
"We're not getting to that, so we need to continue to find other ways beyond divestment if we're really going to get to the heart of the problem," he said.
Dan DiLeo, a theologian at Creighton University (which divested in 2020) who has advocated for Catholic institutions to divest from fossil fuels, said he applauded the "prophetic witness" and expressed hope it could inspire other U.S. dioceses and Catholic institutions to live out church teaching by cutting fossil fuels out of investment portfolios.
He added that U.S. institutions have a differentiated responsibility - a term Francis has used frequently - to lead in acting on climate change due to the nation's disproportionate consumption of fossil fuels.
Announcing the diocese's divestment wasn't about accolades or attention, the diocese stressed, but in an effort to share that it can be done and provide another resource to other organizations that may be exploring the possibility.
"We don't always need to reinvent the wheel," Slentz said.
Brian Roewe wrote this article for Earthbeat.
get more stories like this via email
New Mexico farmers finding it more difficult to grow historic crops are taking up conservation techniques to meet the challenge.
Drought, water scarcity, and extreme weather events combine to require growers to adopt new methods and modern tools.
John Idowu, extension agronomist specialist at New Mexico State University, shows farmers how to improve soil health and help control wind erosion. For long term success, he said they need to focus on sustainable, regenerative practices.
"How can I optimize my system and make it more resilient to climate change, to weather changes?" Idowu explained. "Once we have all those things worked out, farmers will tend to stay in business for longer."
Earlier this year, a NOAA satellite captured an image of winds lifting vast amounts of dust and dirt from New Mexico's dry farmlands. Some forecasters compared it to images last seen in the 1930s Dust Bowl.
Plowing agricultural fields annually was a common practice until the Dust Bowl period but in recent decades no-till or low-till farming operations have gained traction.
Bonnie Hopkins Byers, program director for the San Juan County Extension Service, encouraged New Mexico farmers to get a soil analysis and consider adopting the less aggressive approach. She said it could mean they do not need to till every year.
"One of the biggest problems is that people do something because that's the way they've always done it, or because it's the way their parents have done it, or their grandparents," Hopkins Byers acknowledged. "My philosophy has always been if you're going to till something over, till something in."
Intense dust storms known as "haboobs" were originally thought to be confined to Africa's Sudan but are becoming more common in other arid regions such as the Southwest.
Idowu stressed it makes the adoption of regenerative practices more urgent, as topsoil on New Mexico farmland disappears due to drought, land use changes and wind, which he noted has been particularly strong this year.
"The wind has been a major force, especially in the spring, so many days where you couldn't do anything outside because of the wind," Idowu observed. "You have a lot of dust and that means a lot of erosion and that is exactly what you don't like when it comes to crop production."
The New Mexico Healthy Soil Working Group formed to help farmers improve their land and livelihoods.
get more stories like this via email
By Carolyn Beans for Lancaster Farming.
Broadcast version by Mark Richardson for Keystone State News Connection reporting for the Lancaster Farming-MIT Climate Change Engagement Program-Public News Service Collaboration
At Mountain View Holsteins in Bethel, Pennsylvania, owner Jeremy Martin is always working to make his dairy more efficient.
Currently, he has his sights set on a manure solid-liquid separator. He’d like to use the solid portion of his manure as bedding for his 140 cows and the liquid as fertilizer.
But the project is pricey — he expects the equipment alone will run around $100,000. So Martin hopes to defray the cost through grant funding for dairy projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Removing much of the solids from manure reduces the feed for the methane-producing microbes that thrive in the anaerobic conditions of liquid manure.
The approach is just one of many dairy practices now considered “climate-smart” because they could cut production of climate-warming gases.
For Martin, a manure separator wouldn’t be possible without a grant.
“Once it's in place and going, I think some of these practices will pay for themselves, but the upfront cost is more than I can justify,” he says. “If there's money out there to pay that upfront cost to get started, it makes sense to me to do it.”
Across Pennsylvania, dairy farmers are learning more about climate-smart practices and funding opportunities, and weighing whether these changes are really sustainable for their businesses as well as the environment.
The Latest Buzzword
USDA has defined climate-smart agriculture as an approach that reduces or removes greenhouse gas emissions, builds resilience to the changing climate, and sustainably increases incomes and agricultural productivity.
“Before climate-smart was a thing, we called it conservation. We called it stewardship,” says Jackie Klippenstein, a senior vice president at Dairy Farmers of America.
Indeed, long before the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations coined the term “climate-smart agriculture” in 2010, Pennsylvania dairy farmers had adopted many of the practices that now fall under the label.
For dairy, climate-smart practices largely include strategies that reduce greenhouse gases emitted from cows, manure or fields. Tried and true conservation practices like cover cropping and reduced tillage count.
So do newer practices like using the feed additive Bovaer to reduce methane production in a cow’s rumen, or precision nitrogen management to reduce nitrous oxide emissions from fields.
Paying for Climate-Smart
“Margins are very tight on the dairy farm,” says Jayne Sebright, the executive director of the Center for Dairy Excellence, a public-private partnership to strengthen Pennsylvania’s dairy industry. “Some of these (climate-smart practices) are good for the climate, but they don't make good economic sense until they're subsidized.”
In 2022, the center joined a Penn State-run program called "Climate-smart Agriculture that is profitable, Regenerative, Actionable and Trustworthy" to provide dairy farmers with funds for switching to climate-smart practices.
CARAT was launched with a $25 million USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant, but the future of the Pennsylvania project is in doubt. In April, USDA canceled the partnership program, suggesting that recipients reapply to a new USDA initiative called Advancing Markets for Producers.
Over 60 dairy farmers across Pennsylvania, including Martin, had already applied and been accepted into the first phase of CARAT. This initial phase was intended to help farmers identify the best climate-smart practices for their operations. In the second phase, farmers would have applied for funding to implement those practices. One farmer was already paid for his project before the USDA canceled the partnership program.
“There are fewer funding sources for climate-smart projects than in the last administration. However, private organizations and other entities are funding climate-smart projects,” Sebright says. “Depending on what the practice is, (climate-smart) could also be conservation projects. It could be water quality projects.”
Sebright suggests that dairy farmers also look for support through state-level funding, such as Pennsylvania’s Resource Enhancement and Protection program, which offers tax credits for implementing practices that benefit farms and protect water quality.
Pennsylvania dairy farmers can also contact their county conservation districts to ask about funding opportunities for climate-smart projects, says Amy Welker, a project manager and grant writer for Pennsylvania-based Jones Harvesting, which operates Maystone Dairy in Newville and Molly Pitcher Milk in Shippensburg.
In the next year, Jones Harvesting plans to install a methane digester and solid-liquid separator at a site near Maystone Dairy. The digester is funded with an Agricultural Innovation Grant from the state and an Environmental Quality Incentives Program grant from USDA, along with private funds.
There’s money out there for farmers who implement climate-smart practices, says Welker. But “you can't just look at one source.”
Long-Term Payoffs
Ultimately, for climate-smart projects to make economic sense, they must continue paying for themselves long after the initial investment. One major goal of the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program was to develop markets where farmers adopting these practices could earn a premium.
Some dairy farmers might see that return in the carbon market. National checkoff organization Dairy Management Inc. and its partners have pledged to shrink the industry's net greenhouse gas production to zero by 2050. There are growing opportunities for companies working toward that goal in the dairy supply chain to pay farmers for their contributions.
Early last year, Texas dairy farmer Jasper DeVos became the first to earn credits through the livestock carbon insetting marketplace. DeVos earned carbon credits by reducing methane emissions with a feed protocol that included the feed additive Rumensin. Dairy Farmers of America then purchased those credits through Athian, a carbon marketplace for the livestock industry.
Increased Efficiency
Even without direct monetary payoff, many farmers who adopt climate-smart practices reap rewards in improved efficiency and productivity.
“When you look at climate-smart, you also have to look at what's farm smart,” Sebright says. She suggests that farmers choose practices that benefit their farms, not just the climate.
A farmer might decide to put a cover and flare system on a manure pit, not only because it reduces methane emissions but also because it keeps rainwater out of the pit and reduces the number of times each year the pit must be emptied.
Andy Bollinger of Meadow Spring Farm in Lancaster County has been running a manure separator since 2009. The liquid fertilizes his fields, and a portion of the solids becomes bedding for his cows.
He estimates the system saves him at least $20,000 a year in bedding costs.
“We put a fresh coating of it onto the stalls that our cows lay in every day and scrape the old stuff out,” says Bollinger, who is also the vice president of the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania. “It seems to work quite well, and it saves us from buying other bedding products.”
No-till farming is also a cost saver because it reduces field passes with equipment, says James Thiele of Thiele Dairy Farm in Cabot, which has been 100% no-till for at least six years. The practice saves him money on fuel and herbicides.
“You're saving your environment, and you're also saving green,” he says.
But Thiele questions whether some other climate-smart practices like methane digesters would be practical for his farm, which has 75 to 80 cows.
“I don't know if it'd be worth it for somebody as small as I am,” he says.
“I think over the next few years, we'll rapidly see (climate-smart) tools become more available, and we'll see more organizations like DFA talking to our small to mid-sized farmers to make sure they understand they've got a place in this, they can benefit from it, and the practices and tools are affordable to them as well,” Klippenstein says.
Weighing Climate-Smart
Many dairy farmers wonder whether some of the practices championed as climate-smart will really support their businesses.
Donny Bartch of Merrimart Farms in Loysville has adopted environmental practices from cover cropping to a manure management plan.
“I want to protect the environment. I want to keep my nutrients here on the farm and be sustainable for another five generations,” Bartch says. “But we have to make sure that we're making the right decisions to keep the business going. And to do some of these (climate-smart) practices, the only way they pencil out is to have those subsidies.”
There is also frustration with a system that rewards climate-smart improvements made today without acknowledging the contributions of farmers who were climate-smart before anyone put a name on it.
“You come around and want to start rewarding people for doing these things. You really need to start with the ones that have been doing it for a long time, but that's really not what happens,” says Jim Harbach of Schrack Farms in Loganton, whose farm has been no-till for 50 years.
Climate-smart grant money and carbon credits are typically awarded for the implementation of new practices.
“It’s just the unfortunate way that all of the policies and regulations were written,” Sebright says. “What I would say is, if you do a climate-smart plan, maybe there are practices or things you can do to enhance or support or take what you're doing a step further.”
Scientific Measurements on Real Farms
Some dairy farmers also want to know more about how climate-smart practices will affect their farms before jumping in.
Steve Paxton remembers participating in a government program to improve timber over 50 years ago on his family dairy, Irishtown Acres in Grove City. His family members were paid to climb up into their white pines and saw off many of the bottom branches.
The goal was to create a cleaner log. Instead, more sunlight shown through, which caused grape vines to climb up and topple the trees.
“The bottom line is, there was research done, it looked good, but it hadn’t had enough time to follow through and see just really what the end results would be,” Paxton says.
When Paxton sees estimates of how some practices might reduce greenhouse gases emitted from cows, he wonders how much of that research has been tested on actual dairies.
“I think some of it now is just kind of a textbook estimate of what's happening,” he says.
More meaningful data is needed to show how climate-smart practices reduce greenhouse gases on individual dairies, Sebright says.
As part of the CARAT program, Penn State researchers planned to place greenhouse gas sensors on a dozen dairies and test how much greenhouse gas production falls as farmers experiment with different practices. The researchers intended to then use that data to build models that predict how those practices may affect emissions on other farms. They will still measure emissions this spring on one farm that is experimenting with a new approach for spreading manure in fields of feed crops.
“The real goal of (CARAT) is to have research that says, if you put a cover and flare (manure storage system) on a 500-cow dairy, this is how greenhouse gas emissions will change,” Sebright says. “Or if you use Bovaer on a 90-cow herd, here's how this will affect greenhouse gas emissions.”
Martin of Mountain View Holsteins has his own personal beliefs about where a dairy farmer’s responsibilities to the planet begin and end. But from a business perspective, he feels compelled to adopt climate-smart practices because he expects the industry will eventually require them.
“Climate concerns are coming whether I'd like it or not,” he says. “So my thought is, I might as well get started on it while there's funding to do it.”
Carolyn Beans wrote this article for Lancaster Farming.
get more stories like this via email
Oregon's new state budget cuts funding for programs intended to protect residents from extreme weather and make renewable energy more accessible.
Climate justice advocates said it is a major setback after years of progressive climate policies.
Ben Brint, senior climate program director for the Oregon Environmental Council, is disappointed to lose funding for the Community Renewable Energy Grant Program, which supports a variety of projects tailored to communities, including microgrids and solar storage.
"We felt legislators didn't fund climate resilience programs while fires are raging, people's houses are burning down and the state has already experienced record heat waves in June," Brint pointed out. "Legislators don't see we are in an actual climate emergency and chose inaction."
Brint said the grant program aimed to help low-income, rural and communities of color, those most impacted by climate disasters. Lawmakers attributed the cuts to budget shortfalls and uncertainty over federal funding.
Joel Iboa, executive director of the Oregon Just Transition Alliance, said the Community Resilience Hub program, which creates networks as well as physical places to protect people from extreme cold, heat and smoke also lost funding this session. He argued the hubs are effective because communities design them to meet their unique needs.
"Whether it be a place to plug in your phone or a place to go get diapers or get an air conditioner or whatever your community may need," Iboa outlined. "Depending on what's going on."
A heat pump program for rental housing, aimed at making energy-efficient heating and cooling more affordable, was also cut this session.
Brint added he realizes legislators have to make tough decisions about how to fund health care and housing but emphasized climate change is connected to those issues.
"When we're talking about heat pumps or the C-REP program, we're talking about people's health and livelihoods and saving lives in the face of climate fueled disaster," Brint stressed.
Brint added since climate change is not going away, the movement to push for climate resilience will not either.
get more stories like this via email