UFI Signs Pledge for “Net Zero Carbon Events”

The pledge commits organisations to achieve “net zero” by 2050, at the latest, and halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, is proud to announce that it has signed the “Net Zero Carbon Events” pledge, a joint commitment across the events and meetings industry to achieve the targets laid out in the Paris Climate Accord.

Monica Lee-Müller, UFI President, says: “COVID-19 has absorbed much of our attention lately. Still, our single biggest global challenge is not the pandemic but climate change. Signing this pledge is a way of signalling UFI’s commitment getting involved in actions that will make a difference. I can’t emphasize enough – if we don’t take meaningful steps now, the future is bleak. Not just for our industry, but for our future generations and our planet. Let’s all get on the road to net zero, together.”

The “Net Zero Carbon Events“ pledge is the result of global collaboration throughout the events industry. Over recent months, facilitated by the “Joint Meetings Industry Council” (JMIC), more than one hundred stakeholders from across the sector drafted and finalised this commitment with the support of UNFCCC Secretariat (United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change). The pledge was presented at the Global Climate Summit COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 10. At the time of launch, there are already more than 100 founding signatories - making this the most global and inclusive collaborative action tackling the challenges of climate change within the events sector.

UFI is pleased to be joining this initiative, as it will be through continued collaborative work throughout the events sector that we will be able to make swift and essential progress towards reducing the overall carbon footprint of events.

The commitments of the pledge are aligned with the targets of the Paris Climate Accord. The Net Zero Carbon Events initiative brings together a wide range of event industry stakeholders to:

• Jointly communicate the industry’s commitment to tackling climate change and driving towards net zero by 2050
• Develop common methodologies for measuring the industry’s direct, indirect and supply chain greenhouse gas emissions
• Construct an industry-wide Roadmap towards net zero by 2050, and emissions reductions by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement and climate science, with support and guidance on key issues
• Foster collaboration with suppliers and customers to ensure alignment and common approaches
• Establish common mechanisms for reporting progress and sharing best practice.

The next step of the “Net Zero Carbon Events” initiative is to develop the roadmap which will support the objectives outlined in the pledge.

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