Organisations and groups – such as communities, charities, cities, institutions, clubs, and interest groups – can make a difference by involving their employees and many other stakeholders in the green transition.
As of 18 April 2023, the Pact is no longer accepting new pledge submissions. We are planning the next selection cycle to start later in 2023. Please visit this page to stay informed or subscribe to our Newsletter. Whether you are just getting started or are already active and want to do more, the Pact can help you take concrete green action – on your own or through your networks.
Pledges can be made by:
- organisations, such as a city, association, charity, school, or university;
- informal groups, like a team of work colleagues, neighbours, or friends.
They need to be located or operating in an EU Member State and respect the European Climate Pact’s values and principles.
Pledges from business entities are no longer accepted. However, we encourage all businesses to continue their efforts towards climate neutrality and reducing their environmental footprint.
In addition to the Pact, schemes developed by the European Commission to support companies and organisations in their sustainability journey include:
- EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS): A management instrument for companies and other organisations to evaluate, report, and improve their environmental performance. Organisations that made a pledge under the Climate Pact can also use the EMAS toolkit and registration to embed their environmental and climate commitment in the everyday life of their organisation.
- Sustainable Consumption Pledge: Companies of all sizes that manufacture non-food products or provide services (including retailers) can make a voluntary pledge to support sustainable consumption, beyond what is required by law.
- EU Code of Conduct on responsible food business and marketing practices: Actors ‘between the farm and the fork’, such as food manufacturers, food service operators and retailers, can voluntarily align, commit, and contribute to in support of the transition towards sustainable food systems.
- Covenant of Companies: European Commission programme designed to support European small and medium size companies in reducing their energy bills by decarbonising their processes, products and services by taking pledges.
- Visibility and recognition of your contribution to the European Climate Pact, e.g., on the Pact website or in social media
- Access to communication tools, e.g., Day of Action toolkit
- Opportunities to network, learn and share knowledge
Pledges should contribute to fighting climate change; the action taken should help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. More broadly, they can also address environmental degradation and sustainability.
Pledges can relate to the way organisations and groups operate, produce, communicate, or motivate citizens, employees, customers or stakeholders to take action.
Pledges must go beyond what is required by legislation.
It is also possible to pledge more than once and in different combinations.
There are two levels of ambition for a pledge:
- North Star – ambitious actions that contribute to greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and, in turn, to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement – limiting global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. These actions are also consistent with the EU’s objective of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. North Star pledges should include an emissions reduction target and a date by which this target should be achieved.
- Pathway – actions that cover a wide range of climate-friendly activities. They can represent a first commitment to climate action, leading to bolder steps for more experienced actors and to defining targets.
Each pledge should be fully transparent and, to the greatest extent possible, the results should be measurable.
A pledge can be created by choosing from a list of examples (based on pledges made by other organisations and groups) or by making a brand-new pledge.
The following details are required:
- The name and type of the organisation or group
- The contact details of the authorised person making the pledge on behalf of the organisation or group
- Information about the pledge, including a description, key targets, timelines and, if appropriate, a roadmap
- A website URL, where the details of the pledge and its progress updates will be publicly available
- The duration of the pledge and frequency of progress updates
Pledgers can report on progress every 3, 6, 9 or 12 months – to share lessons learnt, ensure transparency, and demonstrate progress in moving towards the target. If updates are not shared according to the schedule chosen, or at least once a year, the pledger risk classification as unverified, inactive or removal from the Pact pledge list.
Local government and state authorities are expected to use a recognised reporting and verification scheme to ensure the integrity of the pledge. For example, some cities report through MyCovenant or the CDP-ICLEI Unified Reporting System.
Once the pledge is submitted, the information is processed. The Pact’s approach to validation is based on assessments of varying stringency, depending on the organisation’s size and sector relationships. All accepted pledges will be made visible on the Pact website.
The Pact Secretariat supports the pledging process for all organisations and groups.
