The goal of the International Wineries for Climate Action is to reverse the impacts of climate change by de-carbonising the global wine industry, with wineries committing to reduce total carbon emissions by 80% by 2045.

Katie Jackson, senior vice president of corporate responsibility at Jackson Family Wines, said: “Our common goal is to move beyond conversations around the urgency of climate change by collaborating on scalable solutions to reduce our global industry’s carbon footprint.”

Both family-owned wineries are looking to create a space for collaboration that encourages the sharing of best practices that reduce climate impact in vineyard and winery operations. 

Membership will focus on wineries who recognise that climate change is the most significant threat facing the wine industry and who are guided by the urgency for strategic action that accelerates the implementation of innovative solutions to tackle the issue. 

Miguel A. Torres, president at Familia Torres, added: “We are just at the beginning with our initiative, but we hope it will be a trigger, a boost for other wineries to join and accelerate or to start the implementation of carbon-emissions-reduction-programs.” 

International Wineries for Climate Action will start by establishing a framework to understand and measure progress towards the defined goal.

To achieve this, it will focus on three key aims; to establish a baseline of current carbon emissions, adopt the guidance in the Paris Agreement to take a science-based approach to reducing emissions, and utilise at least 20% renewable energy generated by on-site systems to offset winery energy consumption.