Countries sign up to new COP26 sustainable supply chain drive

The UK has unveiled a new trade forum where ministers of importing and exporting nations can plot how to reduce deforestation associated with the global food supply chain.

Launched yesterday as part of the government’s preparations for the COP26 Climate Summit, the Forest, Agriculture, and Commodity Trade (FACT) Dialogue was formally kicked off by COP26 President Alok Sharma alongside ministers from 17 other countries, including Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where commodities-driven deforestation has surged in recent years.

South Korea, Liberia, Nigeria, Argentina and the EU have also joined the coalition, which the government said would be active both before and after the vital Glasgow Climate Summit that the UK is set to co-host in November.

The FACT Dialogue’s founding partners have agreed to developing a shared roadmap for the transition to sustainable supply chains and international trade and to take action to protect forests while promoting development and trade.

Demand for commodities such as palm oil, soy, and beef is fuelling the destruction of some of the world’s most biodiverse habitats and fuelling the climate crisis, as large swathes of tropical forests that act as carbon sinks are decimated to make space for industrial agricultural production.

But Sharma said the FACT Dialogue’s work could “make global trade more sustainable for everyone” by bringing together ministers from producer countries with ministers from large consumer nations such as the UK.

“This is about working together to protect our precious forests while enhancing livelihoods and supporting economic development and food security, which is one of our key priorities as we work towards COP26 in Glasgow later this year,” he said.

It comes on the same day the Treasury published the findings of the landmark Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity, which calls for nature protection to be embedded into the heart of the global economic system. It also follows recommendations last week from Mark Carney’s Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets Taskforce, which explored how to funnel more investment into forest protections efforts globally.

As part of the FACT Dialogue a taskforce that unites more than 25 leading figures working on sustainability will channel their expertise and provide advice to the governments signed up to the initiative throughout the year. The taskforce has been convened by the Tropical Rainforest Alliance, the World Economic Forum group that is the FACT Dialogue’s official non-governmental partner, the government said.

International Environment Minister Lord Zac Goldsmith said the UK had a “long and proud history” of supporting action to combat deforestation, pointing to a provision in the Environment Bill that will make it illegal for UK businesses to trade in commodities on illegally deforested land.

“As part of our Presidency of COP26, we are building a global alliance of countries committed to working together to tackle this important issue and this new dialogue will be instrumental in making this happen.”

However, the impact of global supply chains remains a potential sticking point in the crucial COP26 negotiations, with a number of countries, including Brazil, having previously criticised attempts to establish carbon market rules designed to drive investment in forest protection. Some governments have also objected to criticism of their forest management, arguing that industrialised nations have felled much of their natural forest cover while deforestation in developing nations is driven in large part by Western demand for agricultural commodoties.

As such diplomats will hope what FACT Dialogue can act as a forum in which new policies and initiatives can be developed that can secure support from both developed and developing nations.