Climate action summit aims at next level

San Francisco : Leaders of this year's Global Climate Action Summit have announced that the event will meet or exceed international sustainability standards for large events like concerts and conventions through actions, including waste reduction and other measures to limit the emissions.

"This summit will meet or exceed the gold standard of sustainability for large events and embrace innovative ways of curbing pollution such as a 100 per cent zero-emission vehicle fleet," director of sustainability for the summit, Jaime Nack said.

"We are committed to showing that large events can be environmentally friendly when they are organized and executed correctly."

Large events present unique environmental challenges and have the potential to consume large amounts of energy and resources. To address these challenges, the International Standards Organization (ISO) set forth an industry standard for these events, ISO 20121, that provides a roadmap to a climate-friendly event.

The Global Climate Action Summit will meet this international standard, and its compliance will be independently verified by a third-party global auditor.

To achieve this goal, organizers are working hand-in-hand with San Francisco, local businesses, California and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to curb emissions wherever possible and offset them in other areas.

Sustainable elements of this event include curbing waste.

Organizers will take actions including recycling, composting and food donation with the goal of diverting at least 85 per cent of event-related waste from a landfill.

Reducing transportation emissions is another sustainable element.

Electric vehicles, including electric bicycles, will be widely available with a free ride for the entire San Francisco by Scoots and Ford GoBikes on September 13 and free for attendees all week.

In addition, the San Francisco International Airport has curbed its greenhouse gases nearly 33 per cent from 1990 levels and set targets for zero waste and zero carbon by 2021.

The event will also use 100 per cent electric or hydrogen fuel cell buses. This is the first time an event of this size is using 100 per cent zero emission vehicles.

The summit venue itself will draw its electrical power from one of the cleanest electrical grids in the world.

The 2018 Global Climate Action Summit, hosted here September 12-14, will bring together state and local governments, business and citizens from around the world to showcase climate action taking place.

The summit will showcase climate action around the world, along with bold new commitments, to give world leaders the confidence they can go even further by 2020.