Marking a significant step in the fight against climate change, seven major international organisations have come together to form Partners for Arts Climate Targets (PACT), a coalition that aims to align the art industry with the Paris environmental accord.
The founders of PACT—Art to Acres, Art + Climate Action, Art / Switch, Art to Zero, Gallery Climate Coalition, Galleries Commit, and Ki Culture—hail from New York, California, London, Amsterdam, and Berlin, and have all been working towards building a sustainable, responsible arts industry. Their individual efforts increased over the last few years, and the benefit of a coordinated group became clear. “By coming together, we are able to provide support to one another, to share news, questions and knowledge, to agree on goals, and to collaborate on projects,” the group says in a statement. “This strengthens and amplifies our efforts, while signaling to the public that our different organisations are connected.”
PACT’s efforts will be centered on four main pillars: reducing emissions, transitioning to zero waste, setting unified standards, and adopting intersectional environmentalism to incorporate social justice.
Each group contributes its own expertise and reflects varying sectors of the broader art and culture world, from artists and gallery workers to institutions and conservationists. “We are all unique, with our specific approaches, areas of focus, and geographies, but we are all dedicated to accelerating the sector’s broad adoption of collective climate action,” they say in a statement. “Our hope is PACT encourages one another to keep the work going, as transformative change at this scale requires both creativity and community.”