This weekend, Beyond the Green, the first-ever hemp-focused COP Fringe Festival, taking place in St. Luke’s in Glasgow’s East End, is putting hemp and its untapped potential to be good for our planet on the COP26 agenda.
Beyond the Green, EarthAid and the Future For Humanity launch this weekend as solutions to ensure the future of humanity is bright at the United Nations Climate Change Summit, COP26. Founder Sam Cannon says the festival wants to highlight that music and entertainment can bring people together to help the planet.
Beyond the Green and the Future For Humanity Foundation has pledged to offset COP26’s entire carbon footprint by planting enough hemp to ensure COP26 has a climate-positive result. Third-party assessments will be tallied to produce an official report of the carbon footprint surrounding the COP26 events in Glasgow and the number of acres of hemp contributing to this offset. Farmers will benefit directly from this offset from the carbon credits issued.
To do this, the Future For Humanity Foundation is launching a Regenerative Impact Magnifier which demonstrates the power to not only offset the carbon footprint by growing and farming one acre of Industrial Hemp for every one tonne of carbon generated through the COP26 ecosystem of events, but to also create exponential impact by using industrial hemp to replace all of the products that humans use that currently pollute and destroy our environment. This includes replacing plastics, paper, packaging, advanced materials, building materials, fibreglass, fuels and much more.
Beyond The Green founder, Sam Cannon, former head of music for Ministry of Sound, said: “The time for denying hemp a place at the table for climate discussions is over. Hemp, with its wide range of industrial applications, has been scientifically and industrially proven to be the number one sustainable solution for the climate, capturing at least twice as much carbon as trees whilst taking a tenth of the time to grow.
“If politicians are serious about fighting climate change and not just dancing to the tune of big business, they need to stop treating this environmental wonder crop as a controlled substance and start putting it at the forefront of climate discussions.”
“What’s needed is for us to demonstrate actionable solutions in a way that engages others to do the same. We need people and the best of solutions from all walks of life, from all cultures and communities, cross-sector and we need it now,” added Future for Humanity Foundation’s founder and executive director Melinda Woolf.
“This is a movement of using entertainment to reach the masses. Bringing people together with events, music and concerts and even sports to reach people where they are. And it’s exactly what’s needed to bring people together to educate, inspire, and celebrate so that we can create the moonshot solutions for the world’s greatest and most urgent challenges.”
Cannon says the festival’s focus is to create measurable impact both locally in Scotland and across the UK, and continually with its global roadmap of events through 2022 and beyond to contribute to creating action and success for the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development and the 2030 Agenda.
Scottish rock band The Fratellis will join the festival on Saturday night, and the festival will feature panels, workshops and musical surprises. Its special event will include live performances, plus DJ sets from Andy Cato of Groove Armada, Sarra Wild, Darwin and BEMZ, and talks from climate experts across charities, governments, NGOs, culture and entertainment industries.
UMA Entertainment, chaired by Harvey Goldsmith, producer of Live Aid, Live Earth and Live 8, will announce EarthAid Live as a series of stadium events coming in 2023.
Ross Patel, UMA Entertainment Group said: “Music and entertainment will forever inspire, unite and empower. Culture plays a more important role now more than ever in bridging the gap between the challenging realities we face today and the bright possible futures we all have the power to create.
“We are honoured to be able to provide a platform for artists to speak out and for the entertainment industry to engage in the hope that we create a welcoming and exciting first step on the ladder for those just joining the climate conversation”
All profits from Beyond The Green will be invested into the East End of Glasgow in the form of hemp-based sustainable building materials and multiple other products using the wonder-crop.
The festival takes place Friday 5 – Sunday 7 November 2021, St Luke’s, Glasgow. For more information please visit www.beyondthe.green.
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