VATICAN CITY - The Vatican on Friday launched an international project encouraging disinvestment from the mining sector, in an unusual initiative by the Catholic Church to steer investments away from a specific industry.

Officials said the new initiative, backed by senior Church leaders and about 40 other faith-based institutions, would push companies to treat their workers justly and protect the local environment near their operations, or risk loss of investments.

"In many regions of the world, the expansion of the mining industry has generated profound social tensions and serious environmental impacts," Cardinal Fabio Baggio, a Vatican official, said at a press conference.

He called the new effort "an act of consistency with our faith (and) with the defense of human dignity".

Pope Francis, who died last year, made many passionate appeals during his 12-year tenure for mining companies to adopt more stringent business practices, but the Vatican had not previously launched a disinvestment initiative.

It did however urge Catholics in 2020 to disinvest from the armaments and fossil fuel industries.

Rev. Dario Bossi, one of the coordinators of the new project, said it would invite Catholics and faith groups "to withdraw investments from the mining sector as an ethical response to its social and environmental impacts".

The Vatican did not provide a list of organizations involved in the new initiative, and did not specify any mining companies that could be a target for disinvestment.

Amid a surge in global need for batteries and other high-tech items, demand for the likes of lithium, cobalt and copper is expected to triple by 2030, and quadruple by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency.

Some mining companies have acknowledged a need to change their business practices. In 2001, a group of industry CEOs launched the International Council on Mining and Metals, which advocates for responsible mining practices.

Guatemala Cardinal Alvaro Ramazzini, who was part of Friday's launch, said the new Vatican initiative would seek "to make governments and business leaders understand that what is legal does not always correspond to the value of justice".