For coffee farmers, climate change is now

26.03.2019

Ten years to act

The increasingly effect of climate change is urging for actions that go further than reducing GHG emissions. Nature offers an abundant, readily available solution.

At the Paris climate conference (COP21) in 2015, 195 countries joined forces to adopt the first-ever global climate deal to limit global warming to well below 2°C, compared with pre-industrial levels. Recent IPCC Special Report suggests global warming must be limited to 1.5 to avoid irreversible planetary damage.

How? Through carbon neutrality.

Our forests. Oceans. The soil. These natural carbon sinks can and must be harnessed.

For coffee farmers, climate change is now

In the regions where Nespresso sources coffee, farmers already see climate change realities first hand and the impacts they have on coffee quality, yields and their livelihoods.

Variable climatic conditions reduce productivity, either through drought, or as a result of more humid conditions which allows pests and diseases to take hold. This is why we are setting out strategies in the context of planetary boundaries.

Nature provides an underutilised opportunity to act

Trees sequester carbon – absorbing it from the atmosphere. This fact means they offer a scalable and practical opportunity to act as nature-based solution to counteract climate change.

Coffee actually originates from the humid, tropical forests in southern Ethiopia and South Sudan. It flourishes when grown under shade. By investing in tree planting within coffee farms and the surrounding landscapes, local actions can translate into global impacts.

Trees bring other benefits too. They stabilize ecosystems by storing water, protecting soil, circulating soil nutrients and enriching biodiversity – as well as offering new income opportunities to farmers through the sale of timber and fruits.

This is a holistic approach to climate action.

Building resilience across communities and the supply chain while restoring the ecosystems our business depends on.

Insetting unlocks the financial mechanism for business

Using trees in this way - for agriculture - enables the carbon insetting of our own emissions. Unlike offsetting, which happens at arm’s length and is unrelated to a company’s operations, insetting - a compensation approach- generates positive impacts directly within business value chain.

Financially speaking, it allows the cost of carbon externalities to be internalized within our P&L. In practical terms this means we are able to determine a carbon price for the emissions we cannot reduce and invest this value directly within our value chain.

The business case for insetting at Nespresso is a powerful one. It is simultaneously a climate mitigation and adaptation solution. It harnesses the potential of nature and harmonices corporate activity within the ecosystem.

Insetting our operational emissions

We have publicly committed to inset our operational emissions: fully financing the planting of trees that are equivalent to these emissions. This enables a transition to sustainable land use systems, protecting ecosystems and biodiversity.

Discover the International Platform for insetting.

Championing a regenerative future

Raising awareness and engaging stakeholders in the issues facing our planet is a responsibility we take seriously. In conferences and marketing activities, we are actively promoting insetting as a solution for the private sector and also as a way to make carbon neutral coffee everyone’s preferred choice.

 

"We can’t achieve the Paris agreement goals without capturing and storing more greenhouse gas emissions through land use. Nature is #theforgottensolution that can help achieve this. It’s scalable, affordable & available now."
Nature4climate, at the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.

 

Whatever the future holds, advocating nature-based solutions that collect and store carbon, and continuing to help the most fragile communities adapt to climate change, will remain at the heart of our approach.