New Report at NY Climate Week Urges Industry Scaling Regenerative Agriculture As Critical for the Future

Oct 24, 2023 12:15 PM ET
Birds-eye view of fields

NEW YORK, October 24, 2023 /3BL/ - At NY Climate Week, the CGF Net Zero Taskforce, Accenture and the Climate Champions Team (CCT) have jointly launched a brief report arguing that “consumer industries scale-up of regenerative agriculture is the quickest path to a nature-positive, net zero and resilient world.”

From the Climate Champions report:

For consumer industries, ~70% of the sector’s value chain impact comes from agriculture, which is the second largest driver of GHG emissions globally (including forestry and land-use). Failure to repair our broken agriculture system will leave us without enough natural resources, such as water and healthy soil, to make the products we rely on every day to feed and take care of ourselves and our families. What’s more, global food production alone could use up the world’s remaining carbon budget — causing the world to miss the IPCC’s critical 1.5C threshold. […]

Without serious and swift collective industry action companies will not be able to scale the regen ag practices needed to meet their net zero targets. Recent research from Accenture, in collaboration with the Race to Zero and Consumer Goods Forum member companies, reveals critical insights into the most pressing challenges companies face when implementing and scaling regen ag programs. These challenges demand our attention, and there are opportunities to address them – the time to act is now.

The report argues that by COP30 (2025) consumer industries must be ready to respond to the call-to-action to accelerate the systemic transformation of Food Systems, and that such changes are critical to the longevity of consumer industries, and for safeguarding the many natural resources that all depend upon.

The report itself was developed out of interviews conducted after collaboration between the CGF Net Zero Taskforce and its member companies, Accenture, and the Climate Champions Team created the Climate x Nature x Ag Ecosystem Map, a curated mapping of industry assets (i.e., technology platforms and industry alliances) that gives consumer industries companies an easier, more efficient way to get started or accelerate progress on regenerative agriculture. Users can quickly access the most useful tools for decarbonisation and disclosure on Scope 3 climate, nature and agriculture impacts, and discover new insights about the landscape for scaling nature-positive, net zero agriculture.

To read the Climate Champions report in full, go here.

About Race to Zero

Race to Zero is led by the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, who engage non-State actors to support governments in delivering the goals of the Paris Agreement. Working with the Marrakech Partnership – a global alliance of more than 320 major initiatives and coalitions – the High-Level Champions enhance the ambition of cities, regions, businesses and investors and other non-State actors, to collectively race towards a fair, resilient and zero carbon world.

About The Consumer Goods Forum

The Consumer Goods Forum (“CGF”) is a global, parity-based industry network that is driven by its members to encourage the global adoption of practices and standards that serves the consumer goods industry worldwide. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and other stakeholders across 70 countries, and it reflects the diversity of the industry in geography, size, product category and format. Its member companies have combined sales of EUR 4.6 trillion and directly employ nearly 10 million people, with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along the value chain. It is governed by its Board of Directors, which comprises more than 55 manufacturer and retailer CEOs. For more information, please visit: www.theconsumergoodsforum.com.

The Consumer Goods Forum is proud to be the official Race to Zero accelerator for the consumer goods industry.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent and innovation led company with 738,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. We are uniquely able to deliver tangible outcomes because of our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Accenture Song. These capabilities, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients succeed and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.