Nile Rodgers, Brian Eno and more back climate charities
A number of world-renowned artists have lent their support to the industry’s leading climate change charities.
To mark last week’s Earth Day (22 April), more than 100 artists including Nile Rodgers, Coldplay and Metronomy released exclusive tracks on Bandcamp, with proceeds going to Brian Eno’s climate change charity, EarthPercent.
Both Eno and Rodgers are due to appear at this week’s International Live Music Conference (ILMC), with the former participating in a keynote conversation at the Green Events & Innovations Conference (GEI) and the latter to be interviewed by former Dire Straits manager Ed Bicknell.
Eno says EarthPercent’s Earth Day campaign on Bandcamp “brings artists together to offer exclusive tracks to their fans, to be sold on behalf of climate justice and environmental protection organisations. This is what unleashing the power of music in service of the planet looks like”.
The proceeds from each track will go towards EarthPercent’s five core areas of work: greening music, energy transition, climate justice, legal and policy change, and protecting nature.
“This is what unleashing the power of music in service of the planet looks like”
Alongside EarthPercent, Eno has also supported the launch of Music Declares Emergency‘s new US chapter, along with Billie Eilish, Bon Iver and Arcade Fire.
Music Declares Emergency (MDE), a group dedicated to guiding the music industry’s response to the global climate and ecological emergency, is also backed by The 1975, Major Lazer, The Pretenders, Annie Lennox, Tom Morello and Tom Odell.
Initially started in the UK in 2019, MDE is now also operational in France, Germany, Switzerland, Chile and Canada. It’s gathered over 6,000 signatures from across the music industry on a declaration that calls for an immediate governmental response to do more to combat climate change.
A statement said: “Now, more than ever is the time for the United States to loudly and proactively join the rally to curb and reverse greenhouse gas emissions.
“The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time, and the power of music should take its place at the forefront of this important movement to create a safer, fairer, more sustainable world. The climate crisis is about science, not politics. There is #NOMUSICONADEADPLANET.”
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Building Back Greener: Next steps for the live industry
One of few feel-good stories that has emerged from the more than year-long shutdown of nearly all normal life is the perception that the natural world is getting a long-overdue ‘break’ from humanity.
Emissions are down across the board, with 2.3 billion tons less carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere in 2020 alone, and the quality of rivers and other large bodies of water has improved: parts of India’s Ganges and Yamuna rivers, for example, have become fit for drinking for the first time in decades.
Against the backdrop of such positive developments, as well as a heightened public awareness of the worsening climate crisis, the imminent return of concert touring – with its trucks and planes, its waste and its thirst for energy – could be a turning point for live music’s relationship with the natural environment.
This sense that the end of the pandemic is a fork in the road for the industry is heightened by the upcoming 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, which will be the most important global sustainability event since the landmark Paris Agreement was signed at COP21 in 2015.
With Earth Day just passed, and COP26 coming into view, will the business decide to draw a line under the bad old days and commit to building a sustainable future, or will the rush to get back to business-as-usual leave environmental concerns in the dust?
“With the way the news is, and what we’re seeing globally, people are finally realising that [climate change] is an emergency”
For tour manager Jamal Chalabi (Bring Me the Horizon), who serves as sustainability facilitator for the UK’s Tour Production Group (TPG), the sacrifices of the past year will have been for nothing if the industry doesn’t use the pause in touring to bring forward positive change on sustainability.
Established in summer 2020 by around 60 tour and production managers, the formation of the TPG was driven by a feeling that “it was a really important time for us to come together to press reset,” explains Chalabi.
“We looked at all the things that we’d seen that we wanted to discuss and change – that was things like mental health and welfare, diversity and inclusion, and, of course, sustainability.”
From the TPG’s conversations with promoters, agents, venues, and vendors, Chalabi says he hopes there is a broad industry consensus emerging about the need to make touring sustainable. “I think people are finally ready for this change,” he continues.
“With the way the news is, and what we’re seeing globally, people are finally realising that this is an emergency.”
“If we can look at sustainability from a holistic point of view, it will make the live music sector more resilient [to future crises]”
The events of 2020, he adds, have demonstrated that the live industry isn’t divorced from climate change, many of the causes of which – including deforestation and habitat loss – are believed by scientists to contribute to the emergence and spread of epidemic diseases.
“The pandemic has shown that our industry isn’t as resilient as many people thought,” says Chalabi. “We were first to stop working and we’ll be the last back. If we can look at sustainability from a holistic point of view – intelligent spending, wasting less, streamlining our processes and adopting better practices – it will make the live music sector more resilient [to future crises].”
Several high-profile artists, notably Ellie Goulding, Massive Attack and Radiohead, have publicly criticised the environmental impact of concert touring – and Coldplay have gone so far as to say they will not tour until it’s possible to do so in a net-positive way – but for many, it’s obvious that real change will need a joined-up, pan-industry approach to the issue. As Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja said earlier this year, “One band not touring doesn’t change a thing.”
Same old story?
The importance of the TPG’s crusade is illustrated by research that shows the idea of nature being given a chance to recover by Covid-19 ignores the reality in much of the world. According to Conservation International, “there is a misperception that nature is ‘getting a break’ from humans during the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, many rural areas in the tropics are facing increased pressure from land grabbing, deforestation, illegal mining and wildlife poaching. People who have lost their employment in cities are returning to their rural homes, further increasing the pressure on natural resources while also increasing the risk of Covid-19 transmission to rural areas.
“There have been less emissions because aviation has almost stopped, but global emissions still hit a record high this year”
“Meanwhile, there are reports of increased deforestation in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Illegal miners and loggers are encroaching on indigenous territories, which could expose remote indigenous communities to the virus. Areas that are economically dependent on tourism face reduced resources as tourism has come to a halt, resulting in a rise in the consumption of bushmeat (from wild animals) in Africa. Meanwhile, illegal mining for gold and precious stones in Latin America and Africa is on the rise, as prices spike and protected areas are left unguarded.”
Hadi Ahmadzadeh, founder of sustainable nightlife consultancy Ecodisco, says that while a good narrative – nature ‘recovering’ from human impact – is often useful to get people on board with a movement, it can “sometimes hinder you in the long-term.”
He continues, “With Covid, yes, there have been less emissions because aviation has almost stopped, but global emissions still hit a record high this year. Also the use of single-use plastics has rocketed, with single-use bans being delayed and the widespread need for PPE [personal protective equipment]. So there hasn’t been a magic wand. It’s not a template for how we move forward.”
According to Moo, the British design and printing business best known for its create-your-own business cards, the mass production of single-use PPE during the pandemic is overwhelming recycling systems, leading to a large proportion of the 129 billion face masks used globally every month ending up in the sea.
The company recently partnered with the Ocean Agency, the non-profit creative agency behind projects such as Netflix’s Chasing Coral, to raise awareness of how PPE-derived plastics are exacerbating ocean pollution.
[Ecodisco] has plans in the works to bring recyclable, reusable cups targeted at venues to market in the months ahead
“Both reusable and single-use face masks break down into plastic microfibres, which are easily consumed by marine life and enter the food chain,” explains Richard Vevers, founder of The Ocean Agency. “The pandemic’s impact on plastic pollution is a major human health concern and is now under investigation by scientists.”
Nor is it sustainable to simply stop doing the things that make us happy, continues Ahmadzadeh: “If you look at the sustainable development goals from the UN, it doesn’t just cover plastic cups and carbon emissions – you’ve got cultural sustainability, social sustainability, people looking after each other, the harmony between races and sexes… everything.”
While plastic cups, then, aren’t the be-all and end-all of sustainability, it’s on cups that Ecodisco (which spun out of an earlier eco-friendly party promotion business established by Ahmadzadeh) is currently focusing much of its attention, with plans in the works to bring recyclable, reusable cups targeted at venues to market in the months ahead.
“The whole idea of our system,” explains Ahmadzadeh, “is a reusable cup rental service. So, if you’re a venue, we would deliver reusable cups on Friday morning, for example, and you’d use them Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday day, if you’ve got an event.
Then on Monday we’d collect them, take them away to get washed and simultaneously drop off more clean ones for the week ahead. Every week we’d have two or maybe three collections and deliveries, depending on how many cups the venue can store. The goal is to use each cup around 500 times before recycling them.”
“Don’t just cover up what you’re doing, don’t just offset; reduce the impact as much as possible and then be regenerative”
The Ecodisco system would be funded by a £1 (€1.15) ‘green fee’ for each attendee, with the choice left up to venues as to whether to absorb the cost into the ticket price or levy it on top.
“Whether you integrate it into your ticket price or you make a thing out of it to get people on board with the system – which is what we’d recommend – is ultimately irrelevant,” he adds. “The whole point is, it’s funded by event attendees. We want to remove the cost to the venue.”
“Sustainability just isn’t enough anymore – we actually need to be regenerative,” says Philippa Attwood, who leads corporate partnerships for Barcelona-based Tree-Nation, which helps corporate clients offset their carbon dioxide emissions by planting trees.
“If we just sustain ourselves the way that we are now, that’s actually not good enough. That’s why, in our conversations with clients, we say, don’t just cover up what you’re doing, don’t just offset; reduce the impact as much as possible and then look at how you can be regenerative [ie have a positive effect on the environment].”
So far over 85% of people have said they would be happy to pay the £1 green fee for the [Ecodisco] cup
Like most businesses, Tree-Nation’s plans for 2020 were derailed by the pandemic – it had partnerships with around ten new festivals and live events lined up for the summer and was in conversations with some of the biggest names in live music about offsetting their emissions – though it continues to work successfully with several events, as well as a large pool of e-commerce partners, and its API is integrated with Eventbrite.
Attwood explains: “It could be that you design the event to trigger a tree to be planted every time a ticket is purchased, for example.”
Like Ecodisco’s cups, the decision on whether to include the cost of planting a tree – typically between one and two euros – in the ticket price or make it a separate charge, is left up to event organisers and ticketing platforms.
In the green
Whatever the mechanism that promoters and venues use to fund new green policies, research increasingly shows that fans are willing to pay a little extra if they know they are attending a sustainable/regenerative show.
“You do get some people who turn around and say, ‘I don’t want to put the extra cost onto my customers,’” explains Ahmadzadeh. “In those cases we turn around and say, ‘Okay, cool, let’s ask your customers!’ Working with industry bodies like Music Venue Trust we have started to send out newsletters with survey links, and so far over 85% of people have said they would be happy to pay the £1 green fee for the cup. So, we can show that to someone who says this isn’t what people want, because we’ve got people saying they’re fine with it!”
“Looking into the future, it will probably be more damaging for you if you’re not involved in something like [Tree-Nation]”
It’s a similar story in the festival world. According to Ticketmaster’s State of Play 2019 report, which surveyed 4,000 UK festivalgoers following the most recent summer festival season, a growing number of attendees take sustainability into account when buying festival tickets, with almost two-thirds saying the reduction of waste is a priority.
“Looking into the future, it will probably be more damaging for you if you’re not involved in something like [Tree-Nation],” adds Attwood. “If you’re still using throwaway plastics, diesel generators, etc, and all of that is visible, it’s going to make your event less appealing than a rival event that has reusable everything, deals with trash in the right way and has good environmental policies.
“So, what I would say to people is to think about the long-term, think about who your target market is and decide whether you want to be part of that positive change.”
The economic argument will be key to bringing everyone, particularly those for whom the environment hasn’t been a priority to date, on board with this green new world, suggests Chalabi. “Some people say things like, ‘Sustainability is all well and good, but who’s going to pay for it?’” he explains, “when in actual fact, if we run it right, it will probably cost us less than it did before.”
Chalabi cites the example of a recent conversation with a lighting designer, who told him it’s “difficult to spec certain [eco-friendly] lights, because a festival only has so much money in the budget and the lighting company can only afford to rent these fixtures.
“All these little things will become like second nature. And that’s what we’re trying to educate people about”
We turned it around and concluded, ‘If you’re using fixtures that cost more money but are using less power, then you’re saving money on the power bill.’ It’s really about stepping back and seeing the bigger picture. Yes, it’s going to cost you a little bit more on the lights, but you’re going to save 95% on your bill.”
As time goes on, he continues, “all these little things will become like second nature. And that’s what we’re trying to educate people about. It’s amazing, for instance, how many vendors we’ve gone to asking if there’s a sustainable option on a certain product, and there is – but nobody’s ever asked for it. A lot of production managers have been doing the same thing for years and years, so they’re going to keep on doing it the same way unless they know there are other choices.”
On the artist side, meanwhile, the world’s biggest tour promoter, Live Nation, is seeking to educate its clients about the options available with its new Green Nation Touring Program [sic], which it hopes will help musicians and their teams develop sustainable tours after live music returns.
The Program [sic], part of the Green Nation initiative launched in 2019, will advise Live Nation-promoted artists on how to adopt eco-friendly touring practices that “prioritise people and planet,” according to the company – including in tour planning, production and sourcing.
“Live Nation has the opportunity and the responsibility to provide artists and fans with live music experiences that protect our planet,” said Michael Rapino, LN’s president and CEO, on Earth Day. “We’re inspired by artists who are continually pushing for greener options, and as we develop those best practices the Green Nation Touring Program will help make them standards in the industry, so collectively we can all make the biggest impact possible.”
“Climate change won’t recognise borders – we’re all in this together”
Positive association
Regardless of the efforts of individual companies, trade associations such as A Greener Festival and the TPG will be crucial to securing any pan-industry consensus on environmental standards, and Chalabi says it’s been “a joy bringing people together” on the TPG’s bi-weekly calls.
“We have the heads of sustainability for AEG and Live Nation on a call, and it’s so refreshing because it’s a recognition that climate change won’t recognise borders – we’re all in this together.”
The spirit of collaboration is behind AGF’s decision to run a second edition of its Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI) in 2021, following the most recent event ahead of ILMC on 2 March. This one-off, late-summer GEI will build on the momentum of March’s GEI 13 “towards not just rebuilding but becoming a regenerative force for our sector and all of the people it reaches,” explains AGF co-founder Claire O’Neill.
“We intend to set an example that we, the creative and can- do organisations and individuals, are leading the way, and the future that we want to co-create is fully within our grasp,” says O’Neill. “There’s no time to waste, and so we’re keeping our foot firmly on the (zero-emissions) pedal to make sure our industry steps up to be a positive force to create a future we can all be proud of.”
In the US, the Touring Professionals Alliance is “on the same page” as the TPG, according to Chalabi, while in Scandinavia, the Norwegian Live Music Association recently teamed up with other industry bodies to launch Norway’s first ‘green roadmap’ (grønt veikart) as a resource for live entertainment professionals who wish to reduce the environmental impact of their work.
“Sustainable tours needn’t mean smaller tours, just cleverer ones”
Speaking at the launch of the veikart, the association’s general manager, Tone Østerdal, explained: “Most people do not associate the cultural sector with climate and sustainability, but we have a great responsibility. The purpose of preparing this green roadmap is both to become better yourself, and to inspire others to contribute to solving the climate challenge.”
According to Attwood, it’s a misconception that concert touring will need to be scaled back to minimise its environmental impact – sustainable tours needn’t mean smaller tours, just cleverer ones, she says. “A lot of industries are looking at their supply chain and asking how they can do things better, whether it’s using electric cars instead of those that run on gasoline or sourcing products locally instead of shipping something in from China,” explains Attwood, suggesting a similar model can easily be applied to live entertainment.
For those aspects whose impact can’t be reduced further, that’s where offsetting comes in, she continues: “For example, you have 100 tonnes of CO2 you can’t get rid of, but you can plant 1,000 trees, and you can make a commitment to cleaning up the ocean, so indirectly you are compensating for what you’re doing. And it’s possible to give back more than you’re actually taking, so you’re being regenerative: You could generate two tonnes of trash at your festival but fully recycle it, then pick two tonnes of trash out of the ocean, and you’re doing more.”
While under no illusions about its urgency, noting that “we have ten years to get this right,” Chalabi is upbeat about the live business’s ability to meet the climate challenge that lies ahead.
“I think compared to all the industries out there, we touch on so many different economies – whether it’s from the travel sector to the freight sector, to power to audio to lights, you name it – we touch absolutely everything. And the fact that we also reach out to so many people because of the medium that we’re involved in, our artists and the people that we produce, we have a huge voice.
“That voice can change the way the globe feels, and I think we underestimate that power. Which is why we need to make sure our backstage is clean.”
Read this feature in its original format in the digital edition of IQ 99:
AEG Presents forms Climate Positive Touring group
AEG Presents is forming a team of industry professionals from production, marketing, and operations dedicated to ‘moving the live business towards a greener future’.
The team, dubbed Climate Positive Touring (CPT), comprises staffers who work across various business divisions of AEG Presents including Concerts West, Global Touring, International Touring, Marshall Arts, Messina Touring Group, and AEG Global Partnerships.
Reducing tour-related carbon emissions, supporting locally led environmental and climate justice programmes, and creating impact on both the operating and consumer-side of touring are at the top of the group’s agenda.
“AEG Presents has the ability and structure to really make a global impact in moving our entire business – which has had a traditionally significant carbon footprint – toward a zero-emissions future,” says Jay Marciano, chairman and CEO, AEG Presents.
“AEG Presents has the ability and structure to really make a global impact in moving our entire business”
“The company’s reach enables us to execute at every level of the live experience: from clubs and theatres to arenas, global tours, and festivals. I’m looking forward to seeing how the CPT group begins to implement their plans as the business starts to reopen this year.”
Jointly leading CPT is AEG Presents’ Amy Morrison, who adds: “With light at the end of the tunnel, we feel it’s the right time to announce CPT and our short- and long-term strategies. We’ve been working on this since the earliest days of the shutdown. Now that live music is coming back, we can put our goals into action. As promoters, we will literally put our message on the road, modelling achievable sustainability, with the power of music in our sails.”
CPT has already deployed two major initiatives: the Venue Environmental Survey and the CPT Green Touring Guide.
The survey will gather data that allow venues, artists and CPT to work together to identify sustainability priorities and solutions while the touring guide is to provide guidance and insights that promoters can utilise in the hopes of showing both venues and artists a path forward to net zero or better carbon emissions.
“The company’s reach enables us to execute at every level of the live experience”
The first installment of the guide, titled The Starting Seven, is a compendium of seven actions promoters can take to start to make a positive environmental impact.
CPT is co-headed by Amy Morrison and Nicole Neal, who are joined by Jon Baden, Amy Buck, Caroline Burruss, Kelly DiStefano, Kate Lewis, Mike Luba, Ben Martin, Alexandra McArthur, Kate McMahon, David Rappaport, and Connie Shao.
CPT works in collaboration with AEG 1Earth, AEG’s corporate sustainability program.
The news of CPT comes shortly after Earth Day (22 April), when a host of new initiatives were announced, including a special summer edition of the Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI) and Live Nation’s new Green Nation Touring Program.
GEI, the leading conference for sustainability in the international events sector, will hold its summer edition on 16 September 2021. Tickets are on sale now.
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Climate Live announces debut livestream show
Climate Live, a youth-led global environmental campaign, has announced a 24-hour concert live stream kicking off tomorrow (24 April).
Beginning in Japan, the Climate Live April 24 event will also include performances from countries including Portugal, Uruguay, Brazil, Germany, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Colombia and the UK, where Declan McKenny will perform from a secret location at 8.30pm UK time. Other participating artists include Milky Chance (Germany), Anly (Japan), Barenaked Ladies (Canada) and Any Gabrielly (Brazil).
The live stream is intended as a warm-up for a bigger Climate Live event which will take place across 43 countries on 16 October, ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (Cop26). The line-up and venues for the October event will be announced in the coming weeks.
Led by members of Friday for Future, the youth groups organising the school strikes started by Greta Thunberg, Climate Live aims to raise awareness of the challenges faced by “those on the front lines of the [climate] crisis.”
The live stream is intended as a warm-up for a bigger Climate Live event which will take place across 43 countries on 16 October
By asking, “Can you hear us yet?”, the campaign urges young people to make their voices heard and put pressure on world leaders to take action to combat climate change in the run-up to Cop26.
Climate Live founder Frances Fox, 20, says: “I started Climate Live in spring 2019, after being inspired by an interview in which Brian May said there should be a Live Aid for the climate crisis. I thought this was a brilliant idea to engage more young people in the movement, with our own spin, so immediately started messaging activists from all over the world.”
To tune in to the Climate Live April 24 streaming event tomorrow, or find out more about the campaign, visit climatelive.org/stream.
Yesterday saw the international music community come together for Earth Day 2021, and a number of events continue across the weekend.
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Music rallies for sustainability on Earth Day
Today (22 April) marks the 51st Earth Day and the culmination of a week of action aimed at raising awareness and securing support for the global movement for environmental protection.
With sustainability and green living higher on the world’s agenda than ever before, and ahead of the pivotal UN Climate Change Conference (Cop26) in November, this year’s Earth Day is considered the most important yet – and campaigners in the music industry are marking the date with a host of new initiatives, including a special summer edition of the Green Events and Innovations Conference and Live Nation’s new Green Nation Touring Program.
For Music Declares Emergency, Earth Day is the high point of a week-long series of actions and activities designed to ‘turn up the volume’ on its calls for both government action on climate change and a sustainable music industry.
Earth Day 2021 activities in support of the campaign, which launched in the UK in 2019 and has since expanded to Germany, Switzerland, France, Chile and Canada, include radio, internet and print interviews with its artist supporters; new designs for the ‘No Music on a Dead Planet’ T-shirt range, including a reworking of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures by Peter Saville; and the launch of a new Classical Declares group with Julian Lloyd Webber, Rachel Portman, Errollyn Wallen and more.
Music Declares’ supporter (‘declarer’) list now stands at over 5,000 organisations and individuals in the UK alone. For full details of its Earth Day activities, including events planned for this weekend, click here.
Formed in partnership with Music Declares Emergency, GEI organiser A Greener Festival and Julie’s Bicycle, a new initiative led by Brian Eno, EarthPercent, is asking artists, music companies and industry professionals to commit a small percentage of their revenue to organisations working to combat climate change.
“Many within the music industry want to do something to address the climate crisis but simply don’t know how”
Based in the UK and US, EarthPercent is designed to make it easy for the music industry to donate to the best environmental organisations, knowing that the expertise of EarthPercent’s partners will ensure the money reaches only those projects with “demonstrable and meaningful impact”.
Among the industry figures supporting EarthPercent are Mike Smith (Downtown Music Publishing), Jamie Oborne (Dirty Hit), Alison Donald (Kobalt) and Jackie Davidson MBE, while founding donors include Merck Mercuriadis, Fraser T. Smith and Coldplay.
“Our future depends on us having a healthy planet. But right now, our actions are severely damaging the environment,” says Brian Eno. “We need to act now and as quickly as possible to ensure that we keep our communities clean, healthy and thriving for generations to come.
“Many within the music industry want to do something to address the climate crisis but simply don’t know how, which is why EarthPercent is working with scientists and experts to identify and fund the most promising solutions.”
Coldplay and Eno are among the supporters of another new campaign launching today, Playlists for Earth, which calls on musicians and other creatives to use playlists to spark conversations about climate action.
The brainchild of environmental charity ClientEarth, Playlists for Earth uses song titles on playlists to spell out messages challenging listeners to do their part to save the planet, with Anna Calvi, alt-J, Tom Misch, Francisca Valenzuela and more also involved.
“We need to see a massive cultural change and an immediate government response”
“We should be talking about the climate crisis now more than ever, and taking action to protect the planet we love. We need to see a massive cultural change and an immediate government response,” says Calvi. “That’s why I wanted to be a part of Playlists For Earth: to spark conversation and explore what’s happening in the world in a new way in the lead up to the UN climate conference. It’s so important that we use our position in the arts to say something, as art really has the power to turn people’s attention to issues.”
Click here to listen to the playlists from more than 60 artists on Spotify.
Elsewhere, artists including Brothers Osborne, Lucie Silvas, Ricky Kej and Sza will take part in the second Earth Day Live, which is taking place from midday to 6pm EST today on EarthDay.org.
Workshops, panel discussions, and special performances will focus on Earth Day’s 2021 theme, ‘Restore Our Earth’, with topics including include climate and environmental literacy, climate restoration technologies, reforestation efforts, regenerative agriculture, equity and environmental justice, citizen science and clean-ups.
In addition to musicians, the summit will include world climate leaders, grassroots activists, non-profit innovators, thought leaders, industry leaders, influencers and more, say organisers.
Watch Earth Day Live 2021 live on YouTube here.
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AEG targets zero carbon emissions by 2050
AEG has announced its intention to cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net zero by 2050.
The company, whose divisions include promoter AEG Presents and venue operator AEG Facilities, announced yesterday, on Earth Day 2019 (22 April), that it has revised its previous goal – to reduce emissions by 25%, or approximately 3.2% per year between 2010 and 2020 – in response to the Global Warming of 1.5˚C report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
AEG’s adoption of the new 1.5˚C-based goal will require the company to reduce its total emissions by 33% from 2010 to 2020, and to follow IPCC’s guidance to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030 and 100% by 2050.
“We are committed to leading the way toward change and continuing to help draw attention to this serious issue by doing more to ensure the safety of our world,” says John Marler, vice-president of energy and environment for AEG.
“We are committed to leading the way toward change”
“Today’s announcement builds on that commitment to further drive improvements in our global operations wherever possible.”
Marler adds that “meeting our current 2020 GHG goal is critical as it reflects the level of reductions required to achieve this longer-term targets.”
Elsewhere, AEG has released its 2019 Sustainability Report, which outlines progress toward its set of 2020 GHG, water conservation and waste reduction goals.
“While we are pleased with the work we have done to date, we recognise that much more work needs to be done,” continues Marler. “In addition to adopting our new 1.5˚C target for GHG emissions, we continue to look for ways to reduce potable water at water-stressed sites by 4.4% per year and diverting 70% of waste from landfill across all AEG operations.”
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