Video Gaming Industry Levels Up In Fight Against Climate Change

Rohit Shetty and Reliance Games’ Little Singham a part of “Playing for the Planet Alliance”, a United Nations initiative

Some of the biggest names in the video games industry, with a combined audience of 970 million players, this past week formally committed to harness the power of their platforms to take action in response to the climate crisis. Combined, these commitments from 21 companies will result in a 30 million tonne reduction of CO2 emissions by 2030,will see millions of trees planted, new “green nudges” in game design and improvements to energy management, packaging and device recycling.

These commitments were made at the UN Climate Action Summit which was hosted by the UN Secretary-General where CEOs from platforms including Reliance Games, Sony, Microsoft, Google Stadia and games makers including Rovio, Supercell, Sybo, Ubisoft and WildWorks. 

The video gaming industry is the biggest entertainment industry in the world. Building on the initial success of the awareness campaign for the UN World Environment Day was our ‘Little Singham’ game, which reached more than half a million young gamers within a week of the campaign.

Producer, director and creator of the Singham franchise Rohit Shetty said “ It is a matter of pride for us Indians that Little Singham is a part of this incredible initiative by the United Nations. These activities will hopefully help spread the message for a cleaner, greener & healthier future for us all.”

UN Environment has been working with the industry to build the “Playing for the Planet Alliance” so that the industry can consider its contribution to the wider environmental agenda. 

“The video games industry has the ability to engage, inspire and captivate the imaginations of billions of people across the world. This makes them a hugely important partner in addressing the climate emergency,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment Program (UNEP). “We are encouraged by the commitment of these gaming companies, which shows recognition that we all must play our role in the global effort to lower carbon emissions and effect real change towards sustainability.”

Reliance Games, Gaming CEO Amit Khanduja, said, “The Mobile Games industry has to take the lead in the emerging markets to raise awareness among the next billion gamers coming online to lead the way for climate change. We are honoured to be part of the strong UN initiative for a better tomorrow.”

New York/ Mumbai, September 28, 2019