Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

In this week's briefing, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the conversations coming up at COP28 this week, including themes of finance, energy and just transition, land-use, food and agriculture, and more. They also discuss Oxford University's latest analysis of the costs of putting carbon capture and storage solutions too much at the centre of decarbonisation strategies.

 

Plus: Innovation Forum's Natasha Bodnar introduces the future of climate action conference on 12th-13th June 2024 to be held in Amsterdam. €500 discount early-bird registrations are open.

Over the coming decades, smallholder farmers throughout Africa will play a pivotal role in supporting the continent’s economic development and enabling food security. However, these farmers currently face numerous constraints that hinder their productivity and profitability. Challenges include a lack of support and access to resources such as financing, technology, inputs, and markets.

Accelerating Africa’s regenerative agricultural transformation requires a farmer-centric, ecosystem-led approach that involves actors across the whole value chain. Impactful partnerships and collaborations between farmers, governments, developmental organisations, entrepreneurs, food companies, and stakeholders must yield innovative solutions to help smallholder farmers overcome this complex set of constraints. Access to resources and opportunities through resilient value chains is essential to optimising profitability and improving smallholder livelihoods.

Our panel of experts drew on from real-world examples and experiences, as they discussed:

• The current financial, economic and technological barriers preventing many African smallholders from implementing more sustainable farming techniques
• How can value-chain stakeholders best work together to build capacity, and support farmer-centric solutions to smallholder farmers challenges within fragmented value chains?
• The role of policy changes and support mechanisms in fostering robust, efficient and inclusive smallholder ecosystems
• Examples of new and innovative technologies that can improve rural access to financing, for improved livelihoods and climate-smart farming

This webinar was moderated by Toby Webb, founder of Innovation Forum.

This was the second part of the Focus on Farmers webinar series, hosted in partnership with Bayer Crop Science. To listen to the first part in this series, click here. 

To find out more about Bayer's work in this area, see here.

This week: Charlotte Bande, global food and beverage sector lead at Quantis, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about how to improve the weak points in mainstream corporate sustainability decision making within the food and agriculture sector. They discuss the continued importance in peer-to-peer collaboration and share guidance on what a good just transition could look like.

 

Plus: on-the-spot reflections at the future of climate action conference in Washington DC from Rabobank's chief sustainability officer Terryn Lawrence and Mura Technology's head of sustainability Geoff Brighty.

 

And, global food business Cargill's commitment to eliminate deforestation and land conversion in South America; Danone announces collaboration with Global Methane Hub to reduce methane emissions from livestock; and, Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative's new guidance on high-integrity carbon credits, in the news digest.

 

Host: Ian Welsh

Forests activist Julia Butterfly Hill talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about progress and further opportunities for companies and government in forest and biodiversity protection. They highlight the importance of corporate investment towards carbon market projects such as REDD+. Julia also shares an urgent message for world leaders convening in Dubai for the COP28 climate talks.

 

For more on Julia’s call to action for world leaders click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gYzJcGcRNI

IDH's regional director for Asia landscapes, Chi Tran, and senior programme manager for coffee, Tessa Meulensteen, talk with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about what the incoming EU's deforestation regulation will mean for the coffee sector. They discuss the opportunities and challenges to this regulation, including potential smallholder farmer exclusion and diversity loss in supply chains.

In this week's briefing, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the key issues up for negotiation at COP28, which begins this week in Dubai. In particular, they discuss the different positions around clean energy agreements, and the need to establish a new loss and damage fund.

 

Bea Stevenson talks to Gotz Martin, director of sustainability and strategic projects at Golden Agri-Resources, about the outcomes and impact that he hopes will come from this week's webinar, 'The pathway to nature-positive business: definitions, measurements and targets'. Watch the video is now available. Or listen as a podcast here.

 

Bea also speaks with Veronique Schmitt, Bayer Crop Science’s head of communications for EMEA, about why they have been working with Innovation Forum to put out the 'Focus on Farmers' series: Regenerative food systems in Africa: scaling solutions to empower smallholder farmers'. Watch the video recording or click here to listen as a podcast.

 

Plus, Innovation Forum's Hanna Halmari talks to Ian Welsh about what to expect from Innovation Forum's sustainable apparel and textiles conference in April.

This week: Rodrigue Kreilmann, corporate sustainability governance manager at Mars, and Veronique Bovee, deputy director for responsible sourcing at Proforest, talk with Ian Welsh about how companies can help accelerate progress towards nature, people and climate goals on a landscape level. They discussed the importance of corporate leadership to drive this and peer collaboration.

 

Plus: At the recent future of climate action conference in Washington DC, Bea Stevenson and Ian Welsh spoke with Ashley Allen from Oatly and Saif Hameed at Altruistiq about the importance of scaling product carbon footprinting and emissions data for corporate decision making.

 

And, 2.9C warming looming even with national efforts, according to UNEP; the Ellen Macarthur Foundation calls companies to scale the use of refill packaging; this year's Pepsico Positive Agriculture Outcomes Accelerator rewards farm projects worldwide; and, why insetting is part of the climate impacts solution, in the news digest.

 

Host: Ian Welsh

 

To read Tropical Forest Alliance's latest report, click here.

Deloitte's senior manager for sustainability, climate and equity, Nabarun Sengupta, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about the evolving corporate approaches to nature-related risks and disclosures. They discuss the role of the new Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosure Framework, and highlight the opportunities of nature-based approaches.

In this week's briefing, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the first ever world sustainable transport day on 26th November. Designated by the UN General Assembly, the day aims to raise awareness on lower emission and energy-efficient sustainable transportation to achieve the sustainable development goals. They also discuss what a more sustainable Black Friday could look like.

 

Plus: Innovation Forum's Natasha Bodnar shares what to expect at the responsible sourcing and ethical trade forum on 20th-21st March 2024 in London. £500 discount early-bird registrations are open – secure your passes this week.

This week: At the recent sustainable commodities and landscapes forum, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh spoke with Pallavi Sharma from Global Rights Compliance, Olivier Tichit from Musim Mas and Giorgio Budi Indrarto from Madani. They talked about the evolving impacts and unintended consequences of the incoming EU deforestation regulation and what it means for non-EU supply chain stakeholders.

 

Plus: At the future of climate action conference, Ian also talked with Adam Tarr, formerly senior adviser to the US secretary of agriculture, and Germin8 Ventures' chief scientific officer, Ashlie Burkart. They discussed the progress of the US Inflation Reduction Act in boosting clean energy technologies and scaling nature-based carbon removal projects.

 

And, the Zoological Society of London's Spott assessment shows increased palm oil corporate commitment in tackling deforestation; Mighty Earth flags growing deforestation impacts within the cashew sector in Côte D'Ivoire; and, national climate action plans to be insufficient to meet Paris agreement goals, according to the UN, in the news digest.

 

Host: Ian Welsh