SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — On November 11, Net Zero Carbon Events will launch its official roadmap at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The roadmap sets out the framework within which event companies must achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
“Last year at COP26, we launched the Net Zero Carbon Events initiative, committing to defining what we want to achieve as an industry,” said Kai Hattendorf, CEO and Managing Director of UFI. “Now, one year later, over 400 industry stakeholders have come together to answer the question of how we can get there. The roadmap charts a path forward for the years to come. It is based on the collective input and experience of hundreds of events industry stakeholders around the world, and it is written in a way that global climate policymakers can easily understand, as we will need to work with other sectors to implement it.”
The goal of the initiative is to bring together industry stakeholders to develop common measurement systems and reporting mechanisms, communicate the industry’s commitment to sustainability, and create an industry-wide plan to achieve net zero by 2050 and reduce emissions by 2030. You can sign the Net Zero Carbon Events Commitment Here.
“I really want to encourage all organizers, big and small, all venues, all service providers, everyone, to join us,” Hattendorf said. “This initiative is recognized by the United Nations as the collaborative voice and action of the events industry. This is the famous ‘seat at the table’, something we have always asked for as an industry.”
Alongside the launch and publication of the Roadmap, presentations, panels and Q&A sessions are scheduled. The role of the events industry for societies and economies and the implementation of the Roadmap will be among the topics discussed during the session.
“Like any industry, our customers and stakeholders will either see us as part of the climate change problem or part of the solution. Frankly, if our regulators were to view events as part of the problem, our ‘license to operate’ as an industry would be at risk. We know that, “By bringing people together in our markets and meeting places, we save them a lot of extra travel that they would have to make to connect with their customers and colleagues. You could say we act as carbon aggregators. And we know how we can make our events more sustainable and reduce their carbon footprint,” Hattendorf said.
Interested parties can register and attend the official publication of the roadmap on site or online. Register for the launch here.
Contact Kai Hattendorf at [email protected]