AEG, the world’s leading sports and live entertainment company, announced today on Earth Day 2019, that the company has adopted a new greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, based on the 2018 Global Warming of 1.5˚ C report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Nearly 50 years ago, US Senator Gaylord Nelson spearheaded the first Earth Day, sparked by the devastating 1969 oil spill off the Southern California coast. The inaugural celebration in 1970 saw 20 million Americans showing their support, followed by the passing of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Acts by year’s end.
Inspired by a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California—the first Earth Day was held in 1970. Flash-forward 49 years, Earth Day is now celebrated by more than a billion people worldwide, bringing social awareness to some of our most urgent and complex environmental issues, such as climate change.