The Climate Crisis and Our Responsibilities

We are in an unprecedented environmental crisis, and we need to act now to limit the damage. The science is clear: we must at least halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, from a 2019 baseline, to limit global warming.

 

The cultural industries have an important role to play in this as arts organisations have a large public platform and the ability to influence public discourse. The arts sector also generates a significant amount of money in the wider economy.

 

This gives the sector a triple responsibility:

  1. To urgently reduce its own emissions
  2. To use its platform to set a positive example and inspire wider action
  3. To spend its money in a way that supports a rapid and just transition to a low-carbon society

 

 

The Problem

There is an urgent need for financing climate action but conventional offsetting cannot be considered the fastest, fairest, nor most effective way to tackle the climate crisis.

 

There are now many well documented issues associated with conventional offsetting. These include problems verifying effectiveness; reliance on estimates and predictions; using offsets to greenwash or avoid emissions reductions; and the fact that, even if effective, offsetting projects will not remove emissions in time to reach 2030 targets.

 

This means that, by spending money on offsetting, organisations are often:
Spending money on projects and initiatives that are unproven or ineffective.
Suggesting that we can ‘cancel out’ emissions, which implies that we don’t need to focus on reductions.


Using up limited organisational resources which could have been spent on more effective climate action.

 

 

Our Solution

SCFs are GCC’s proposed solution to the problems associated with offsetting. SCFs are intended to encourage ethical and effective funding of environmental action within the visual art sector and beyond.

 

By allocating money into a fund annually, it can be used strategically to support effective climate action. This can be either for external organisations working on the frontline of the environment or internal sustainability initiatives that remove emissions and waste directly from operations and the supply chains.

 

Unlike offsets, SCFs are designed to encourage action and tangible results in the near term, to incentivise transparency and accountability. Because SCFs do not need to make carbon numbers line up on a balance sheet, they can be spent on a whole range of more strategic and systemic solutions that could not be supported by carbon offsets.

 

Ultimately, SCFs are a way to use the platform and resources of the visual art sector to get much needed funding to transformative climate projects. Every contribution that organisations can make will have an impact, and show that the art world is stepping up to be part of these broader solutions.