Investor group warns livestock industry needs to do more on methane

Grieg Seafood ASA

01/12/2021 07:00

* COP26 methane, deforestation pledges a challenge - FAIRR
    * Just 18% of biggest companies measure some emissions
    * Most cattle producers have no deforestation policy

    By Simon Jessop and Ana Mano
    LONDON/SAO PAULO, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A global push to cut
methane emissions and end deforestation is at risk of being held
back by weak corporate efforts in the livestock industry, an
investor group said on Wednesday.
    More than 100 countries pledged to cut methane emissions 30%
and halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 at the COP26 climate
talks, much of which will need to come from the livestock
industry. The UN food agency said livestock accounts for 44% of
man-made methane https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode
 emissions.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2RT0RX
    Yet less than a fifth of the world's biggest livestock
producers currently measure even some of their emissions, a
report from the FAIRR Initiative (FI), whose members manage more
than $45 trillion in assets, showed.
    "As the largest driver of both methane from human activity
and deforestation, the ambitions set at COP26 handed a big slice
of responsibility to the food and agriculture sector," said FI
Chair Jeremy Coller.
    "Yet failures from methane to manure management underline
the growing sense in the market that cows are the new coal." 
    In its fourth annual report, the group assessed 60 publicly
listed animal protein producers worth a combined $363 billion on
10 environmental, social and governance-related issues including
emissions and antibiotic usage.
    Among those to score highly in the assessment were Norwegian
aquaculture firms Mowi ASA  MOWI.OL  and Grieg Seafood
 GRIA.OL , while the highest ranking meat and dairy companies
were Maple Leaf  MFI.TO , Marfrig  MRFG3.SA  and Fonterra
 FCG.NZ , all of which were defined as "low risk".
    Fellow large producers including the world's biggest
meatpacker JBS SA  JBSS3.SA  and Tyson Foods  TSN.N , meanwhile,
were regarded as "medium risk", the report said. 
    JBS dropped points for reasons including its reporting on
animal welfare and employee working conditions, while Tyson was
marked down for reasons including that some of its sourcing is
from regions at risk of deforestation, FAIRR said.
    JBS and Tyson were not immediately available to comment when
contacted by Reuters.
    The group makes the findings public so other investors can
use them when they analyse company performance and in their
engagement with company boards.
    The report also found that 42 of 45 meat and dairy firms
which source soy for animal feed from areas at high risk of
deforestation, such as Brazil's Cerrado region, do not have a
policy to mitigate deforestation.
    The cattle industry has also done a poor job in monitoring
its broader supply chain, the report said, and is currently
missing up to 90% of the deforestation caused by indirect
suppliers.
    Nearly a third https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/brazil-audit-finds-32-jbs-cattle-amazon-state-irregular-farms-2021-10-07
 of the cattle bought by JBS in the Brazilian Amazon state of
Para came from ranches with "irregularities" such as illegal
deforestation, prosecutors found in a 2020 audit.
    "The science is clear that to avoid runaway climate change
high-emitting sectors such as agriculture must transform
themselves in the next decade. Yet FAIRR's latest research shows
how far the food sector has to go," said Eugenie Mathieu, senior
analyst at Aviva investors. 

 (Additional reporting by Caroline Stauffer; editing by David
Evans)
 ((simon.jessop@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0) 207 542 5052;
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