David Nussbaum
At a time when the world’s most eminent climate scientists produce their report on the climate change impacts, adaptation and resilience, we’re reminded why climate change represents such a serious threat to species, habitats and communities which WWF has spent 50 years working to protect.
Recognising those threats, here at WWF-UK, we have several programmes focusing on finding solutions to some of the global-scale problems that contribute to climate change. One such programme is LiveWell for LIFE – a project that looks at health, nutrition, carbon emissions and affordability and demonstrates how low-carbon, healthy diets can help us achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the EU food supply chain.
The food system as we know it – agricultural production, food processing, transportation, retailing and food waste – is a big contributor to climate change. It accounts for almost a third of the EU’s consumption-related greenhouse gas emissions, and is responsible for biodiversity loss and deforestation, mainly in places far from European borders. In terms of health impacts, the current global food system is also imbalanced with over 840 million people worldwide being chronically undernourished, yet 1.5 billion people being overweight.
If we want our ecosystems and biodiversity to thrive – for the benefit of people as well as nature – we need to start looking at food in a different way and we need to start aspiring for a better, more sustainable food system.
Since 2011, the LiveWell for LIFE team has been working hard to encourage debate on this issue around the EU. They recently hosted Value your food – a conference intended to encourage a collaborative approach towards a more sustainable food system. The event was held at WWF-UK’s Living Planet Centre, giving the delegates who attended an opportunity to visit our new HQ. I was happy to welcome them, and to sit in for a few of the presentations and discussions.
One of the things that we all took from the conference is that everyone bears responsibility for shaping the future of food: retailers, producers, governments and consumers to name but a few of the actors involved. Everyone has an important role to play if we want to succeed and change things for the better.
A number of these stakeholders were present at Value your food; the speakers and the audience were drawn from a wide variety of sectors. It was a mixed crowd, and I was pleased to see two conclusions emerging clearly from the event: firstly, that the right people are involved in the debate and secondly, that we have the expertise and many of the solutions needed to move toward a truly sustainable food system.
The challenge, therefore, is identifying how to take this collaborative approach forward. As Value your food concluded, we certainly got a feeling that the discussions were not going to lose momentum once the delegates left the building. And they shouldn’t – there is no better time than now to start having these debates and converting them into actions that can help our food system play its part in addressing climate change. I’m delighted that WWF-UK is creating space for these important discussions to take place, and that so many other stakeholders are joining us around this particular table.
David Nussbaum
Chief Executive – WWF-UK
