Pope receives PEFC Christmas tree

In what has become an annual tradition at the Vatican, a Christmas tree has been delivered to Rome and will stand in St Peter’s Square.

The tree, a 30m Norway spruce weighing 14 tonnes, comes from a PEFC-certified forest in the Walloon region of Belgium. Almost half of the Walloon forest area is PEFC certified.

PEFC Italy will be offsetting the CO₂ emissions resulting from the tree’s transportation and subsequent lighting through forestry work that, it said, “will reinvigorate forests and lead to a positive net sequestration of CO₂.

When Christmas is over and the tree is taken down, its wood will be used to make toys.