The gaming industry is obliging to the call of going green considering the world is on the brink of death. Climate change is real and every living thing is receiving the blow. And as we still wait for the world’s leading industries to accept that as a living fact, the likes of Sony and Microsoft won’t have to be told twice by Greta Thunberg.

Alongside companies behind Twitch, Angry Birds and Minecraft, PlayStation and Xbox made a pledge to step up in an effort to fight climate change.  This was during the Climate Summit at the UN General Assembly at UN’s headquarters. The firms also pledged to involve their users in these efforts.

The promises range from planting trees to reducing plastic packaging. This also includes making game devices more energy-efficient and incorporating environmental themes into the games themselves.

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I believe games and gamers can be a force for social change and would love to see our global community unite to help our planet to survive and thrive.

Speaking to the gathering of world leaders, Sony Entertainment’s CEO, Jim Ryan, reiterated the company’s plans to have a more energy-efficient console. According to him, if 1 million players get to use it,  they could save enough electricity to power 1,000 average homes.

Some of the developers have already begun the move with games being set in a way to educate children about wildlife or otherwise address environmental issues. For those who can actually remember, the Angry Birds character Red was anointed by Ban Ki-Moon as an “honorary ambassador for green” in 2016.

There is a bright future for this initiative now with Monday’s commitments from 21 companies under the UN Environment Program. With the gaming industry being among the largest in the global economy claiming more than 2 billion users, this could surely be “the most powerful mobilization channel in the world.”

Gaming company leaders say that not all screen time is of equal value. They believe their products can engage players on such serious issues as climate change.

“We try to provide entertainment with substance,” Clark Stacey, CEO of WildWorks, said in an interview.