The world’s largest meat company abandons its climate and deforestation goals

illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day, reviewed by our editorial team. Read the full piece on Inside Climate News or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: JBS, the world’s largest meat company, has withdrawn its commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040 and removed references to its previous deforestation goals in Brazil
• The company said it will instead focus on reducing emissions intensity, particularly within its direct operations

🔭 The context: JBS’s climate footprint is largely concentrated in its supply chain, where around 97% of emissions originate from livestock production, agriculture and land-use impacts
• The company argued that tracking and reducing these emissions across hundreds of thousands of farmers and multiple countries represents an “immense challenge”

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Reducing climate ambition in the livestock sector could slow efforts to address methane emissions, deforestation and biodiversity loss linked to meat production
• Agriculture and land-use change remain major drivers of global emissions, particularly through cattle farming and forest conversion

⏭️ What’s next: Environmental groups are expected to increase scrutiny of JBS’s revised sustainability strategy, while investors and regulators may continue pushing companies to provide transparent, science-based climate targets
• The shift also raises broader questions about corporate climate commitments and accountability

💬 One quote: “The further we got into execution, the clearer it became that a Net Zero goal spanning hundreds of thousands of independent agricultural producers across tens of millions of hectares in dozens of countries… is an immense challenge.” – Jason Weller, Chief Sustainability Officer at JBS

📈 One stat: 97% of JBS’s greenhouse gas emissions come from its supply chain rather than direct operations

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