Vatican newspaper claims Panama Canal is symbol of world’s climate crisis

July 11, 2026

In the most prominent article in its July 10 edition, the Vatican newspaper asserted that the Panama Canal has become a new symbol of the world’s climate crisis.

In “Canale senz’acqua“ (Canal without water), staff journalist Francesco Citterich reported that “the El Niño climate phenomenon is having significant consequences on the operation of the Panama Canal, one of the world’s most important pieces of international maritime trade infrastructure.”

“The prolonged drought affecting the region has drastically reduced water levels in the basins that feed the waterway, forcing authorities to limit the number of daily transits and impose restrictions on ship cargo loads,” Citterich added.

The Vatican newspaper’s front-page report of a prolonged drought in Panama causing current limits on daily transits is difficult to reconcile with other recent articles:

• On May 21, gCaptain reported that “traffic through the Panama Canal is climbing sharply as disruption in the Strait of Hormuz drives more U.S. energy exports toward Asia and Pacific markets, pushing the waterway close to full operating capacity ... So far this year, ship transits via the Panama Canal have increased 8%.”
• On June 5, Maritime Executive reported that “Panama had an unusually wet rainy season.” Nonetheless, because of predictions of a severe El Niño, the Panama Canal Authority was preemptively lowering water levels from the normal 50 feet to 49.5 feet, to prevent a repeat of 2023 conditions, when, during a drought, limits were placed on daily transits and the water level fell as low as 38.5 feet.
• On July 6, Maritime Executive reported the Panama Canal Authority planned to lower water levels to 49 feet on July 24 and 48.5 feet on August 15, again to prevent a repeat of 2023 shipping limits. Maritime Executive also reported that ships are currently experiencing sharply reduced wait times.

The Vatican newspaper article concluded:

The Panama Canal symbolizes a new kind of fragility in our globalized world: the climate crisis no longer affects only ecosystems but strikes at the very heart of trade routes. One of the most significant engineering feats ever built to bridge the oceans is now forced to slow down due to a shortage of Earth’s simplest, most indispensable, and most vulnerable resource: water.

 

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Further information:

• Canale senz’acqua (L'Osservatore Romano, 7/10/26)