The Music Climate Pact is a global platform, initiated by the UK’s Association of Independent Music (AIM) and in collaboration with UK record labels association the BPI, as a response to COP26 and the urgent call for collective action to combat the climate crisis. Given our unparalleled reach, we have a unique opportunity to help artists and audiences engage with climate issues.

The Pact sets out a series of high-level commitments that will serve as a declaration of intent for the global music sector.

The Pact brings together key actors (the independent music community, major music groups, and others) to align as a sector and address our biggest environmental impacts in an efficient and collaborative way.  

We believe that through collective action and a unified voice, the music industry will be best-placed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mitigate our contribution to global climate change and ignite broader societal action on the climate crisis.

The Pact will help to ensure that we bring our own businesses up to speed and share knowledge in an efficient way. We’ll use this platform to regularly update on our progress.

The Pact was launched with the following founding Signatories:

Anjunabeats / Beggars Group / BMG / Brownswood Recordings / Full Time Hobby / Inside Recordings / !K7 Music / Ninja Tune / Secretly Group / Sony Music Group / Universal Music Group / Warner Music Group / Warp

View the full list of Signatories and Supporters here.

The science is very clear. Urgent action is required to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels and avoid catastrophic runaway climate change. The decisions that we make now, as an industry and as individual businesses, are vital if we are to take meaningful and timely action.

Following on from the Paris Agreement, governments and businesses from across the world have launched ambitious programmes to reduce carbon emissions. The Music Climate Pact represents the aligned response of the global music industry to this cause.

Commercial businesses in music work with a wide range of partners to create and deliver music (including trade organisations, consultancies and NGOs). Through these relationships, the global music sector has the ability to innovate, put out incredible music and shift culture.

As part of the wider music ecosystem, these organisations play an essential role in the decarbonisation of our industry. Supporters of the Music Climate Pact are businesses and organisations that share our vision for a cleaner, more efficient music market. Towards this end, Supporters agree to work with Pact Signatories in the reciprocal sharing of data, knowledge, and resources to help deliver the Pact commitment. 

These include the Association of Independent Music (AIM), A2IM, The BPI, EarthPercent, Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), IFPI, IMPALA, Julie's Bicycle, Key Production Group, Music Declares Emergency and the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN). View the full list here.

Significant updates and news are added here: musicclimatepact.com/news.

Each founding member of the Pact agreed that by February 2022 it would have signed the SBTi Standard Commitment letter stating that they will commit to setting science-based emissions reduction targets or would have joined the Race to Zero programme. 

Day-to-day, we continue to collaborate to build and deploy scientifically-robust tools that will help us measure and report on our decarbonisation efforts - such as a music industry carbon calculator – and work with supply chain partners to act on environmental issues that are common to each of our businesses, including emissions from the creation and distribution of music.

The pathways set out in the Pact provide support to businesses that commit to them. 

Signatories to the Pact commit to sharing data and information that will help other Signatories, in addition to bespoke collaborative tools being built for signatories to access.

AIM and the BPI will be working with and supporting their respective memberships, their counterparts around the world, and wider music community, to fulfil their commitments.

Our Getting Started page is built to support small record industry companies with their first or next steps. We recommend starting there.

Both the SBTi and Race to Zero programmes have bespoke criteria for SMEs (small to medium enterprises). These can be found in the SME Science Based Targets Setting Form and the SME Climate Commitment. 

The IMPALA Carbon Calculator enables SMEs to measure their emissions straightforwardly. 

By signing up to the SME Climate Commitment (one of the two pathways), businesses have 18 months to produce their first emissions report, with support from AIM and the BPI.

AIM and the BPI will work with and support their respective memberships, counterparts around the world, and the wider music community to reach a point where they can sign up to one of the frameworks and join the Pact.

The UNEP provided support and initial guidance to establish sector-driven decarbonisation efforts during the conceptualisation and launch of the Pact. Going forward, we will continue to liaise with UNEP on sector guidance to help Pact members drive individual decarbonisation work and translate learnings from other sector-based initiatives, such as Playing for the Planet.

We will continue with our projects already in progress, build tools together and share knowledge to instigate real change. This Pact seeks to unite and take forward existing and future climate initiatives.

We are gathering stories and case studies of music industry efforts, from our Signatories, Supporters and other. These can be found on our news page.