Initiates Media Climate Agreement

The Media Climate Accord (MCA), set to be launched at IBC 2025, marks a significant stride towards sustainability in the global media and entertainment industry. The MCA aims to transform this sector into a beacon of media tech innovation and accountability.

The MCA's mission is to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, ideally by 2050. To achieve this, it promotes open standards for energy and carbon measurement across the media, encouraging signatories to measure their energy consumption and carbon footprints, and report their results to the industry and others.

The International Energy Agency estimates that streaming infrastructure accounts for 2-3% of global electricity use, highlighting the potential impact of the MCA. The MCA's ambition extends beyond mere reduction; it aims to drive innovation, exchange best practices, and commit to major energy reductions by 2030 and net-zero by 2040.

A key commitment of the MCA is a 40% reduction in energy consumed per streaming hour by 2030. The MCA also seeks to embed sustainability into production, digital workflows, and distribution systems, recognising the significant role video plays in driving internet traffic worldwide, with video representing more than 80% of internet traffic globally.

The MCA invites organisations across the global media and entertainment space to collaborate on this initiative. The DPP's Committed to Sustainability programme, offering a non-judgemental way for every company to understand their baseline and make progress on their sustainability journey, is seen as a perfect complement to the MCA.

Rowan de Pomerai, CEO of the DPP, has emphasised the importance of sustainability, with 89% of respondents in their Sustainability Pulse Check underscoring this sentiment. Barbara Lange, co-founder of the Media Technology Sustainability Series (MTSS), has also emphasised the global impact of the media industry and the need for urgent climate action through the Media Climate Accord.

For more information about the Media Climate Accord, please visit https://www.mtsseries.org/. The MCA aims to develop a unified, media-specific framework to effect change, sharing progress through its annual benchmarking platform. The MCA has not yet been explicitly detailed with a publicly available list of companies or organizations that have joined or applied for membership in the current search results.

The MCA's launch at IBC 2025 signifies a pivotal moment for the media and entertainment industry, as it embarks on a journey towards a more sustainable, innovative, and accountable future.