Coldplay aims at reducing emissions related to their next world tour by 50 per cent, and to remove the remaining unavoidable emissions with a portfolio of carbon removal solutions.
“Playing live and finding connection with people is ultimately why we exist as a band,” said Coldplay.
“We’ve been planning this tour for years, and we’re super excited to play songs from across our whole time together. At the same time, we’re very conscious that the planet is facing a climate crisis.
“So we’ve spent the last two years consulting with environmental experts to make this tour as sustainable as possible, and, just as importantly, to harness the tour’s potential to push things forward. We won’t get everything right, but we’re committed to doing everything we can and sharing what we learn. It’s a work in progress and we’re really grateful for the help we’ve had so far.”
Nature-based carbon removal solutions to be used include reforestation, soil restoration, rewilding, and blue carbon projects, such as seagrass meadow restoration. Other solutions include sustainable aviation fuels, and a direct air capture and storage solution from Climeworks – the only technological approach included.
Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks said: “It is already proven that carbon removal at scale is a must on the current emissions pathway and technological solutions will be needed.
“We are very inspired to see public figures like Coldplay seizing the magnitude of the challenge and acting boldly by working towards ambitious emissions reduction and removing the unavoidable part. Supporting them with our carbon dioxide removal service takes us one step closer to our vision of inspiring 1 billion people to remove CO2 from the air.”
To limit global warming to 1.5°C, humanity needs to drastically reduce emissions (also called mitigation), which prevents new CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Historic and unavoidable emissions must also be removed from the air to achieve net-zero and net-negative emissions globally.
According to Climeworks, some scientific studies indicate that by mid-century 10 billion tons of CO2 will need to be removed from the air every year to keep global warming in the line of the limits of the Paris Agreement.