WCC Public Policy Positions: Encourage Conservation and Sustainable Energy
Here we continue to elaborate on each of the WCC’s 2025 Public Policy Positions. You can learn more about Catholic Social Teaching on the USCCB website.
Encourage conservation and sustainable energy. The earth has a limited supply of natural resources to sustain life. Wisconsin must promote the conservation of our natural resources and the development of alternative energy sources.
As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to care for the earth as part of our common home. The Church calls us to care not only for the needs of our brothers and sisters around the globe, but future generations. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states that “Responsibility for the environment, the common heritage of mankind, extends not only to the present needs but also to those of the future” (467).
Thus, in caring for all people and future generations, we must conserve and sustain our natural resources. Our economic systems must “respect the integrity and the cycles of nature because natural resources are limited and some are not renewable” (Compendium 470).
Furthermore, the Church warns against the current “exploitation” of “natural resources for both the present and the future” (Compendium 470). All economic activity must balance “the needs of economic development with those of environmental protection.” Put another way, “every economic activity making use of natural resources must be concerned with the safeguarding of the environment” (Compendium 470).
While market economies seek maximum profit, “an economy respectful of the environment will not have the maximization of profits as its only objective, because environmental protection cannot be assured solely on the basis of financial calculations of costs and benefits. The environment is one of those goods that cannot be adequately safeguarded or promoted by market forces” (Compendium 470). We all must seek “innovative ways to reduce the environmental impact of production and consumption of goods should be effectively encouraged” (Compendium 470).
In his encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis wrote that developed countries ought to help “by significantly limiting their consumption of non-renewable energy and by assisting poorer countries to support policies and programmes of sustainable development” (52).
Pope Francis sums up the tension between economic progress and environmental sustainability this way: “Efforts to promote a sustainable use of natural resources are not a waste of money, but rather an investment capable of providing other economic benefits in the medium term. If we look at the larger picture, we can see that more diversified and innovative forms of production which impact less on the environment can prove very profitable” (Laudato Si’ 191). |
