COP25: Novel feed ingredients, SBT methodology, EU Green Deal

05-Dec-2019 - Last updated on 05-Dec-2019 at 16:15 GMT

The private sector should expand its reach and not only focus on profits and return on investments but pursue its ethical responsibilities to ensure the communities where they operate address poverty reduction, sustainable food security and societal wellbeing, says Nutreco’s corporate sustainability director, José Villalon.

He was presenting at UN Climate Conference (COP25), taking place in Madrid this week.

The COP25 brings together governments, businesses, local authorities and civil society to work on the rule book for implementing the Paris Agreement and to build momentum for more ambition in the years ahead.

Villalon argued that private companies can – and should – work across the value chain to significantly reduce their impact on climate change in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

“Global companies like Nutreco are not only well positioned to make a bold impact but have a clear social responsibility to do so,” he added.

In a session on Sustainability Aquaculture and Food Security today [December 5], he spoke on behalf of Nutreco’s aquaculture division, Skretting, about the essential role that the aquaculture industry must play in feeding the growing global population.

“The industry needs to earn its social license to operate by enabling farmers to increase their food production by 50%. Novel feed ingredients, such as protein from insects, or from bacteria fed on recycled CO2 as well as fermented algae producing high omega-3 are a few of several viable tools to achieve this ambition, but we cannot do it alone.”

Tomorrow, Villalon will talk about how companies like Nutreco are looking to create shared value, reduce poverty and address food security in rural communities by doing more with less, and by measurably decreasing greenhouse gases (GHGs) through science-based targets (SBT) methodology.

EU Green Deal

EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, also spoke at COP25 in relation to the EU’s climate ambitions. She participated in the opening Leaders’ Session on Monday.

“In ten days from now, the European Commission will present the European Green Deal. Our goal is to be the first climate neutral continent by 2050. If we want to achieve that goal, we have to act now, we have to implement our policies now. Because we know that this transition needs a generational change."

She said the EU Green Deal will cut emissions while also creating jobs and improving quality of life.

"This will include extending emission trading to all relevant sectors [e.g. shipping], clean, affordable and secure energy, the boosting of the circular economy, a farm to fork strategy as well as a biodiversity strategy," said von der Leyen.

The first-ever European climate law to achieve a transition to climate-neutrality by 2050 will be officially presented in March 2020, although the package will be unveiled by the commissioner for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, on December 11.

Weak, half-baked policy

Draft plans for the EU Green Deal would have minimal impact on the worsening climate and ecological emergencies, warned Greenpeace last week, after it obtained a leaked overview of the plans compiled by the European Commission.

Commenting on the leak, Greenpeace spokesperson, Franziska Achterberg said:

“This is a vast policy program that marks a shift away from the Juncker commission’s deregulation agenda. But you just have to look beyond the top lines to see that the proposed measures are either too weak, half-baked or missing altogether.

“Responding to the climate and ecological crises requires a fundamental rethink of the economic system that for decades has rewarded pollution, environmental destruction and human exploitation. This plan barely scratches the surface.”