“Let’s be Hopeful for Music’s Ability to Mitigate Impact of Climate Change

22.11.2024: UK Music Chief Executive Tom Kiehl set out the music industry's significant carbon footprint and explained what the sector is doing to address this at Music Mark's annual conference in Nottingham, themed this year on "Sustainability in Music Education".

Music Mark is a membership organisation, Subject Association and an Arts Council England Investment Principles Support Organisation (IPSO) advocating for excellent musical learning in and out of school.

It is estimated that the music industry produces 405,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK every year. Festivals generate vast amounts of waste, including plastics and non-recyclable materials, with audience travel and artist and crew transport causing issues.

The average touring DJ emits 35 tonnes of CO2 a year. A single vinyl record can take 1,000 years to fully decompose. Research indicates if you listen to an album more than 27 times its more environmentally responsible to by a CD than stream it.

Despite these challenges, Tom highlighted in his presentation to the conference a number of steps that UK Music and the wider music industry has taken to drive awareness and inspire change in the sector. This ranges from lobbying for a musicians' railcard to incentivise the use of public transport for touring musicians, as well as calling for greater collaboration across the sector and with government.

UK Music has also responded internally through the introduction, monitoring and regular updating of a Sustainability Policy, and was also a signatory of the Creative Industries Council's Creative Climate Charter. Designed to forge a common approach across other sectors like film, video games, fashion and advertising, the Charter sets out eight key principles to reduce environmental impacts across the creative industries.

In addition to this work, Tom also highlighted the positive difference that a number of organisations and initiatives from the music industry have achieved. This included the work of Earth Percent, Julie's Bicycle, Music Declares Emergency, Vision 2025, Greening Streaming and the Music Climate Pact.

He also mentioned measures taken at an individual artist level, such as Coldplay's move towards sustainable packaging for their most recent physical album and pledge to reduce emissions by 50% compared to their previous tour.

The Government is of course key to any sector's ability to address climate change, with Tom praising it for placing the creative industries at the heart of its industrial strategy, mission to turn the UK into a Clean Energy Superpower and commit to cutting greenhouse emissions by 81% by 2035 at the recent COP29.

Tom concluded his remarks by striking an optimistic tone despite the many challenges that the world faces, setting out a number of measures delegates can do to make a difference. These measures included promoting sustainable choices such promoting car pools for events, and reducing waste and consumption, but also the importance of staying informed as apathy and fear are the two biggest threats to the planet.

Tom was joined on the panel by Steven Greenall (pBone Music), Andy McKeown (Normans Education), Gemma Price (Bury Music) and Ruth Roberts (Kent Music), each of whom gave their own perspectives as to how each and everyone of us can make a difference. The panel was chaired by Emma Cragg from Music Mark.