• Take immediate leadership and action wherever it is in the power of humanitarian organisations and donors to do so.
• Try to influence others within their networks and suppliers to do the same.

• Engage in radical collaboration to learn from others inside and beyond the humanitarian sector, local, national and international actors, but also public institutions and private businesses engaged in a similar effort. This may include technical partnerships to access in-depth knowledge and experience on a given subject; operational partnerships to accelerate the deployment of solutions; or strategic alliances to create communities of action.
• Remain committed as highlighted in the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organisations, ¹⁰ to openly share the knowledge and insights that will contribute to the development of people-centred, climate-resilient and sustainable operations.

Reducing GHG emissions should not compromise organisations’ ability to deliver people-centred humanitarian assistance according to their goals and mandate:

• Maintaining their ability to provide timely and principled humanitarian assistance
• Securing the quantity and quality of their programmes
• Confirming their adherence to humanitarian principles, especially the ‘Do No Harm’ principle
• Reducing emissions brings co-benefits for more effective humanitarian assistance
• Being aware of overlaps with the global humanitarian agenda (Localization, Grand Bargain, Triple Nexus)

It’s about changing how organisations do things – by operating within planetary boundaries, not what they do.

Each organisation should commit to halving GHG emissions by 2030 on a path to net zero and adopting specific quantified targets for each source of emissions:

• Calculate and monitor the carbon footprint
• Define reduction targets in absolute terms
• Base targets on identified solutions and actions for the main sources of emissions
• Formulate effective reduction plans
• Set quantified intermediary milestones on the way to 2030 and beyond

By adopting quantified, science-based targets and best practice from the private sector, such as the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)¹¹, they will contribute to bringing the humanitarian sector to operate within planetary limits, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement and the recommendations of the IPCC.¹²

• Comply with GHG Protocol standards.
• Include scopes 1, 2, and 3 in targets for GHG emissions reduction, which notably means that indirect emissions from the supply chain or use of distributed items are included.
• Take into consideration the full operational perimeter of their activities, including programmes delegated to or implemented by partners.
• Do not count carbon credits as part of the primary inventory of emissions., nor use offsetting to support claim to carbon neutrality. Instead, prioritize emissions reduction initiatives over offsetting. If offsets are being used, use high quality selection criteria and make sure they are appropriately priced.

• Monitor and report on emissions annually, including progress made against target – data quality should improve over time and inform more precise mitigation and adaptation actions.
• Share data publicly, especially with international and local partners, donors, and local communities.

Considering the various planetary boundaries:

• Promote integrated approaches that have a positive impact on biodiversity and the local environment, notably air, water and soil quality.
• Ensure climate solutions and actions do no harm to the environment or minimize harm to the greatest extent possible.
• Favour solutions that simultaneously address adaptation, resilience and mitigation challenges and bear multiple co-benefits for affected populations and organisations.

Considering the primacy of delivering qualitative, effective humanitarian assistance, and the extreme tension on sustainable resources, organisations should embrace a mindset of moderation in their organisational model and consumption of goods and services to avoid emissions, where possible, or other negative environmental impacts. They should:

• Prioritise the reduction of transport needs, then shift to alternative transport means
• Prioritise measures that favour the efficient use of resources and avoid waste to limit procurement to goods and services to those that are necessary to fulfil the mission, then shift to alternative products & services.
• Prioritise the reduction of energy consumption, then shift to renewable energy.

• Demonstrate, and actively encourage peers, partner organisations and professional networks to adopt a principles-based approach to reducing their carbon and environmental footprint.
• Prioritise environmental awareness among staff – provide them with opportunities to contribute to the cultural shift and foster a culture of learning and adaptation, collectively build expertise, tools and methods.
• Encourage, initiate, join, or contribute to collective capacity-building efforts to accelerate knowledge-sharing and achieve economies of scale.