The Catalunya Convention Bureau – Catalan Tourist Board 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.

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 were more than 100 signatories, making this the most global and inclusive collaborative action tackling the challenges of climate change within the events sector.

Catalunya Convention Bureau 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.

By signing the pledge, the Catalunya Convention Bureau is committing to publish our pathway to achieve net zero by 2050 at the latest, with an interim target in line with the Paris Agreement’s requirement to reduce global GHG emissions by 50% by 2030. This work has to be concluded by the end of 2023. Catalunya Convention Bureau also will collaborate with partners, suppliers and customers to drive change across the value chain. To track the progress towards the targets, Catalunya Convention Bureau will measure and track its emissions of Greenhouse Gases according to industry best practice. Finally, CCB will report on its progress at least every two years.

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. More information about the initiative at www.netzerocarbonevents.org