Pledges can be made by an:

• Organisations, such as a city, association, charity, school or university (please note that, for the remainder of 2022, pledges from non-business entities will be prioritised; this means that pledges from businesses will only be accepted if accompanied by an ambassador application and/or if part of a joint pledge)
• Informal groups, like a team of work colleagues, neighbours or friends

They need to be located or operating in an EU Member State and respect the European Climate Pact’s values and principles.

• Visibility and recognition of your contribution to the European Climate Pact, e.g. on the Pact website or in social media
• Access to communication tools, e.g. Day of Action toolkit
• Opportunities to network, learn and share knowledge

Pledges should contribute to fighting climate change. This means the action taken should help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. More broadly, they could also address environmental degradation and sustainability. 

Pledges can relate to the way organisations or groups operate, produce, communicate or motivate citizens, employees, customers or stakeholders to take action. 

Any pledge must go beyond what is required by legislation.

Organisations and groups can either pledge on their own (‘solo’ pledges) or together (‘joint’ pledges). It is also possible to pledge more than once and in different combinations!

There are two levels of ambition for a pledge:

• North Star – ambitious actions that contribute to greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and, in turn, to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement – limiting global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. These actions are also consistent with the EU’s objective of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. North Star pledges should include an emissions reduction target and a date by which this target should be achieved.
• Pathway – actions that cover a wide range of climate-friendly activities. They can represent a first commitment to climate action, leading to bolder steps for more experienced actors and to defining targets.

Each pledge should be fully transparent and, to the greatest extent possible, the results should be measurable.

A pledge can be created by choosing from a list of examples (based on pledges made by other organisations and groups) or by making a brand new pledge.

Other European Commission environmental pledging frameworks in line with the mission of the European Climate Pact

Launched by DG Justice and Consumers European Green Deal, the Green/Sustainable Consumption Pledge is a voluntary commitment taken by businesses to support sustainable consumption beyond what is required by law. By making this pledge, companies commit to calculate and reduce their carbon footprint; they also commit to calculate and reduce their environmental footprint, demonstrate increasing circularity in their activities, and/or respecting social sustainability across their supply chains.

The following details are required:

• The name and type of the organisation or group (and its partners, for joint pledges)
• The contact details of the authorised person making the pledge on behalf of the organisation or group
• Information about the pledge, including a description, key targets, timelines and, if appropriate, a roadmap
• A website URL, where the details of the pledge and its progress updates will be publicly available
• The duration of the pledge and frequency of progress updates

Pledgers can report on progress every 3, 6, 9 or 12 months – to share lessons learnt, ensure transparency and demonstrate progress in moving towards the target. (Pledge tracking updates must be provided on the schedule chosen, or at a minimum once a year, not to risk classification as unverified, inactive or removal from the Pact pledge list).

Large businesses, local government and state authorities are expected to use a recognised reporting and verification scheme to ensure the integrity of the pledge. For example, some companies report through the CDP disclosure system and some cities report through MyCovenant or the CDP-ICLEI Unified Reporting System. 

Once the pledge is submitted, the information is processed. The Pact’s approach to validation is based on assessments of varying stringency, depending on the organisation size and sector relationships. All accepted pledges will be made visible on the European Climate Pact website. 

The Pact Secretariat is on-hand to support the pledging process for all organisations and groups.