In Brief: Sustainable investor group advises on agriculture cleanup

The environmental investor group Climate Action 100+ unveiled new guidelines this week for decarbonising the global food and beverage industry targeting supply chain and land use reform.

Ceres and the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment co-authored a report that set environmental and decarbonisation expectations for food and beverage companies, according to a statement Climate Action 100+ released. The report found that reducing pollution from the food and beverage industry “has the potential to mitigate more emissions than implementing renewable energy technologies across all sectors”.

“Neither the individual companies nor the sector as a whole will be able to meet science-based emissions reduction targets without addressing supply chain upstream emissions from agriculture and land use change,” Ceres and PRI, which helped launch Climate Action 100+ in 2017, said in the report.

The investor groups recommended key expectations for food and beverage companies, including the establishment of emissions reductions targets, reforming supply chains to integrate green transportation and sustainable packaging, limiting deforestation and supporting land restoration.

Climate Action 100+ has gathered the support of 615 investors representing $55 trillion in assets to pressure the world’s largest corporate polluters to take necessary action on climate change.