Business Summit on Climate Change - Unilever pushes for stop on deforestation
Last updated 28/05/2009 22:11:05
Business Summit on Climate Change - Unilever pushes for stop on deforestation
Destruction of the world's tropical rainforests accounts for about 20% of greenhouses gases – more than the entire transport market, according to Unilever's ceo, Paul Polman.
This week, speaking at the Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen, he called for governments to take a dramatic step in tackling climate change by supporting a halt on deforestation.
"We believe that we are at a point in time where, if government and industry work effectively together to address the problem of deforestation, we can make real progress," he added.
Polman appealed to governments, both in the West and in South East Asia, to agree on and implement financing mechanisms currently under development by the World Bank and other institutions to encourage affected nations to protect their rainforests.
The palm oil industry, particularly in Indonesia, has been recognised as being one of the drivers of deforestation in South East Asia.
Polman felt that that the consumer goods industry must exert pressure on the growers, through the ‘Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil' and through buying decisions and commitments to purchase certified sustainable palm oil made available by suppliers.
Over the past last year, Unilever, as a large user of palm oil, over the past year Unilever has assembled a large coalition of international businesses, including L'Oréal, Colgate, Cadbury, Tesco, Procter & Gamble and Shell.
Polman also made a commitment to the rigorous measuring and management of Unilever's climate change impacts across the whole value chain, which would include:
- looking beyond the greenhouse gases coming from the factories and lorry fleets and including the impact from both the sourcing of raw materials and from to consumer use.
- reviewing a network of 250 Unilever factories around the world
- evaluating how agricultural raw materials are sourced and the impact of 2 billion consumers using the products.
Polman concluded: "We need to focus on where the impacts are greatest and where we can make a difference. None of these things are easy, but we must not squander any opportunity to make progress."