Studio giants including Xbox, SYBO, and Riot Games were among a cohort of top tier video game industry names to join discussions with the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Climate Promise event at its New York headquarters this month.
Led by PlanetPlay, the climate conscious games marketplace and not-for-profit digital platform, the delegation engaged in a specially convened roundtable that brought the UNDP face-to-face with pioneering players in the games industry for the first time.
The gathering – which also included members from Playmob, Unity, Bolton University, and The Danish Trade Council – was assembled in order to kickstart talks around the UNDP’s Climate Promise 2025, an initiative designed to support countries around the globe step up their climate actions contributions ahead of 2025.
The coming year has been labelled a ‘critical year’ as countries enter a new five-year cycle of commitments to limit global warming. Climate Promise 2025 has been organised by UNDP global director of climate change, Cassie Flynn, and introduced by the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres as a campaign of renewed efforts on climate action across the United Nations.
PlanetPlay’s ceo, Rhea Loucas led the delegation as it presented the climate action conversation from the perspective of the video games industry. Among the topics addressed were the challenges being faced by developing countries as they adapt to a warming planet and how the games industry can make a positive contribution to keeping the earth below the 1.5-degrees threshold set by the 2015 Paris Agreement.
This included how games can amplify the Climate Promise message by mobilising player communities, including via in-game activations, surveys, green narratives, and more.
SYBO has been recognised as among the leading players in engaging millions of gamers worldwide in climate action through campaigns including its recent partnership with the global music star, J Balvin that placed the singer within SYBO’s flagship game, Subway Surfers to raise awareness and funds for climate action. The campaign itself was powered by the not-for-profit, PlanetPlay.
The Climate Promise event coincided with Earth Month last month during which PlanetPlay unveiled its own Make Green Tuesday Moves initiative with the aim of helping games studios, publishers, and players make important real-world impacts.
In a joint statement, Rhea Loucas, ceo of PlanetPlay and Jude Ower, ceo of Playmob, said: “We recently launched the Make Green Tuesday Moves initiative to empower studios and players to do more for the planet, based partly on evidence from this year’s Game Developer Conference report that indicated industry felt more could be done to drive sustainability within both games and business operations.
“We are serious about climate change, as everyone should be. Meeting with the UNDP demonstrates our passion and commitment to rally the games industry and gamers to make change.”
