The team’s efforts to reduce Groupe URD’s carbon footprint are paying off!

Since December 2020, Groupe URD has been part of a collective effort to reduce its carbon footprint.

Alongside 14 other NGOs that are members of the Humanitarian Environment Network (REH), Groupe URD has signed the Statement of Commitment on Climate by Humanitarian Organisations to reduce the environmental impact of its activities and better adapt to climate change.

This statement is based on five commitments:

• Measure their impact on a regular basis;
• Reduce their carbon footprint: by setting a reduction target in line with IPCC recommendations of -30% by 2025 and -50% by 2030;
• Adapt humanitarian action to new environmental and climatic challenges;
• Communicate: make this information public as soon as it is available, and on an annual basis;
• Involve other players to raise our ambitions.

At the end of 2024, a 4-year Update Report to highlight the challenges and opportunities faced by NGOs in achieving their goals, thereby enabling this analysis to be shared widely across the international solidarity sector. The aim of this report is to help the rest of the sector ask itself the right questions about reducing the carbon footprint of organisations, and invites all organisations to get involved!

Encouraging results and a first target that should be achieved by 2025!

By signing the statement of commitment, the Groupe URD has therefore committed to reducing the carbon intensity of its activities by 30% by 2025 and 50% by 2030 compared to 2019. By calculating its carbon footprint every three years and estimating the greenhouse gas emissions generated by its air travel on an annual basis, Groupe URD is monitoring its progress towards decarbonisation. Thanks to significant efforts, Groupe URD has succeeded in reducing its carbon intensity by 39% in 2024 compared to 2019, already exceeding its 2025 target! This is an encouraging trend that Groupe URD will seek to consolidate and build on in the coming years. Committed to strengthening a more responsible international aid sector, Groupe URD also hopes that its results will inspire other organisations!

A decarbonisation strategy based primarily on reducing flights

In order to achieve these ambitious but essential decarbonisation targets, each signatory has developed its own environmental roadmap, tailored to its operations and constraints. At Groupe URD, the main challenge was to reduce air travel, which accounts for around two-thirds of its carbon footprint. It was therefore collectively decided to cap the budget for air tickets during project set-up, as a percentage of the total project budget. In addition, to ensure a downward trajectory, this percentage is reduced each year! Furthermore, in order to offer a degree of flexibility, Groupe URD has set up a ‘carbon fund’, an internal system that allows ‘carbon credits’ to be exchanged between projects.

Finally, a list of best practices to follow has been drawn up:

• Take the train for journeys of less than 7 hours;
• Take direct flights;
• Make use of teleworking and videoconferencing;
• Use local consultants;
• Plan longer missions or combine missions;
• Rely on individual/Groupe URD networks;
• Always ask yourself whether travel is really necessary.

For more information, see the “Briefing note: reducing Groupe URD’s greenhouse gas emissions”.

A new carbon contribution Policy

Convinced now of the weakness of the hypothesis on which the concept of voluntary carbon offsetting is based, and of the ethical issues raised by its application, Groupe URD has therefore decided to talk about a ‘carbon contribution’. By adding a ‘carbon contribution’ budget line to each project proposal, it aims to systematise the carbon contribution mechanism across all its projects and thus contribute financially to the implementation of fair ecological transition projects.

For more details see the briefing note carbon contribution.

Promoting learning and fostering good practices

Since the Autumn School on Humanitarian Aid (UAH) organised in 2009 on ‘Environment and Humanitarian Action’, Groupe URD has sought to share lessons learned and good practices and to exchange ideas with its peers in order to address the challenges of a fair ecological transition in the sector. In addition to creating the Humanitarian Environment Network (REH), which it co-founded in 2012 and has been running ever since, Groupe URD regularly organises training courses, workshops and events on these issues. For example, in December 2024, it co-organised a workshop on the dynamics of carbon finance in international solidarity. In 2024, it also led training sessions on environmental issues for Médecins du Monde and Action Contre la Faim, and regularly organises remote training courses. Many other activities are dedicated to these issues, such as the recent Evaluation of the vehicle sharing initiative tested in Lebanon by the Fleet Forum.

While working on the ecological transition of NGOs, the Groupe URD has also recently looked into issues of environmental justice, which the humanitarian sector cannot ignore. Following an initial publication on fair and equitable decarbonisation target for an international NGO, this position and all the issues it raises are presented in an article published in the review Humanitarian Alternatives.