A new FIDIC guide to integrate carbon management into FIDIC contracts was launched today (2.12.25) at FIDIC’s International Contract Users Conference in London. The FIDIC Carbon Management Guide and associated supplementary guidances offers users information on how to integrate carbon management into FIDIC contracts and will play a key role in supporting the adoption of carbon management practices across global infrastructure projects.

The new guide, which is designed to help the global infrastructure and construction sectors embed carbon-conscious thinking into every stage of a project’s lifecycle, underscores FIDIC’s longstanding commitment to sustainability and decarbonisation and builds on the FIDIC Climate Change Charter, launched in 2021, which sets out in basic, initial terms, how to address climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience in the built and natural environment.

Launching the FIDIC Carbon Management Guide at the conference in London, FIDIC contracts committee member Adriana Spassova highlighted the hard work of the task group members who helped in the guide’s production. “This is a key development for FIDIC and underlines the importance of all stakeholders on projects collaborating to improve the carbon balance sheet,” she said. Speakers during the conference session to launch the guide said that it had the potential to have a significant impact on contract management and the integration of a robust carbon measurement and management process.

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The guide highlights that applying carbon management best practices throughout a project’s lifecycle helps participants to adopt a realistic approach and can also provide the tools to reward ambition. The FIDIC Carbon Management Principles, contained and referenced in the new guide, provide an ethical and practical foundation as follows:

1. Making the carbon emissions budget a mandatory evaluation criterion transforms procurement into a driver of innovation.
2. All stakeholders working together to improve the project’s carbon balance sheet creates a common goal.
3. Prioritising the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rather than the use of offsetting focuses on change now.
4. Establishing unambiguous calculation methodologies delivers fair competition and contractual certainty.
5. Maintaining employer responsibility for GHGs removal, rather than transferring risks inappropriately, ensures clarity and certainty.
6. Recognising the need for continuous improvement helps drive industry transformation forward towards decarbonisation.

Most significantly, the FIDIC Carbon Management Guide redefines stakeholder roles and responsibilities. Employers become GHG stewards owning the project’s carbon balance sheet. Financing institutions gain tools to drive sustainability through procurement requirements. Contractors compete on GHG emissions efficiency alongside cost and quality and the entire supply chain becomes accountable for transparent GHG emissions reporting and continuous improvement.

During the discussion at the conference in London, Fenwick Elliott partner Jeremy Glover, who was a member of the task group that produced the guidance, spoke about the importance of using the same language and terminology in the area of carbon management. This was a clear message that came through from stakeholders’ feedback as the guide was developed, he said. He also highlighted the need for collaboration and sharing knowledge so that project participants were aware at all times on issues like risk, the project’s progress and costs. Glover also praised the role of engineers in the development of the guide, whose experiences, insights and all-round knowledge have led to a much more robust end outcome.

FIDIC hopes that the new guide will be implemented across all of the 170 countries that use FIDIC contracts, helping to make a significant difference on global infrastructure projects. The new guide, which was distributed to attendees at the London conference as a special pre-release edition, will be available for purchase from the FIDIC Bookshop at the end of December (electronic copies) and in January (for hardcopies). Available now free of charge from the FIDIC website is an online Q&A to support the FIDIC Carbon Management Guide (https://fidic.org/sites/default/files/CM%20Guide%20-%20Draft%2004%20FINAL%2028%20Nov%202025.pdf).