Climate Action - COP26 the first week.

COP26 – the first week?

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It’s ten years since I attended a UNFCCC summit.?I’m eager?to see?the huge shifts that have taken place since?Cancun, where?I?lobbied with the?Water & Climate Coalition?to?put?water?on the agenda.?It was considered a marginal?issue!?And today, there are countless sessions about adaptation. Tragically, this is because we?have?failed to act in time?to mitigate the impacts of climate change.??

This time,?I’m here to?develop?the?Bonsucro?roadmap on climate action for the sugarcane sector, in line with our strategic objectives to?further?reduce GHG’s?in sugarcane farming and milling?in line with the Paris targets of 1.5,?and to support adaptation?and resilience in key origin countries.??

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Pledge to end deforestation

Day one. Morning?started with?the first major?political commitment at COP26,??over?100 world leaders promising to end, and reverse, deforestation by 2030.?Positive?speeches from?leaders such as?Joe Biden?(USA)?and Nana Akufo-Addo?(Ghana)?pledging their support to end deforestation.??New public and private?funding?was?announced, including an appearance?by Jeff?Bezos (in the background).?In total some?$20bn of funding?was committed, including?￡1.1bn fund from this total will be established to protect the world's second largest tropical rainforest in the Congo Basin.??

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Including agricultural commodity trade?

Commodity-driven deforestation has come right up the political agenda – at last.??While the EU finalises its new?legalisation?on deforestation-free supply chains, a?group of 28?countries?have signed up to a new?Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) Statement?to develop?their?national roadmaps?to reduce commodity driven?deforestation.???

This is bolstered by ten of the world’s largest?commodity traders?announcing?they will?also?share?their?roadmap for?deforestation free supply chains?by COP27.??Bonsucro?stands ready to support them?

Backing by financiers?

Mark Carney announced?a new global financial platform, unlocking?$130 Trillion of private finance available to invest in the transition to net zero.?To support this a new global disclosure reporting standard will be developed for a more standardised approach to?climate and ESG risk assessment.?But there is a difference between risk-avoided, and the?value-added?impacts that?the?Bonsucro?standard delivers.?Let us?hope that they will learn from?the?ISEAL community years of experience.??Bonsucro?is?just concluding?an ISEAL funded?project to?develop a?methodology to support financial institutions to?reward sustainable farming practices?in South Africa?- next steps are to engage other banks and develop the product further.?

The Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition which provides public and private?finance to tropical and subtropical countries that successfully reduce emissions from deforestation?announced it had?exceeded its target of mobilising $1 billion in public-private commitments.?

Sector meetings?

Emerging from the Global?Leaders'?Summit, I met with members and partners, including?meeting Alan Jope, CEO?Unilever.?Unilever are one of our more?commited?Buyers sourcing certified?sustainable?sugar credits, so it was a pleasure to say hello. He was interested to hear that?Bonsucro?could help them calculate their Scope 3 emissions from their certified sugar supplier.??

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Later I met with?Evandro Gussi, the CEO of UNICA in the Brazilian pavilion?yesterday?afternoon.?We discussed the role?that?sugarcane?can play in?decarbonising the economy,?and the many ways that?Bonsucro?and UNICA can work together to promote this agenda. We spoke about?innovation?in the?sugarcane?sector, such as sugarcane biogas, and the alignment?between?RenovaBio?(Brazil Biofuel Program) with the?Bonsucro?certification scheme. By aligning, we believe we can?increase?the adoption of?sustainable practices?in sugarcane production. We also?discussed?the?market’s?appetite for sugarcane ethanol and how it plays a crucial role in decarbonising transport.?

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