Climate change represents an important threat to the sustainability and competitiveness of the food and drink industry, alike growing scarcity of natural resources and fuel and energy costs. This threat is even more important as climate-related risks to food security, water supply, and economic growth are projected to increase proportionally to global warming. Food systems are not only impacted by climate change but also have shared responsibilities for driving it which cannot be denied.
It is therefore urgent to review the way food systems are organised, including at global and regional level, and to adopt a coordinated and coherent approach between food security, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The European food and drink industry thus strongly supports the Paris Agreement objective to keep the global temperature increase below 2°C and to pursue efforts to keep it at 1.5°C. As part of the transition towards more sustainable food systems, it will take the lead in supporting Europe becoming the first climate-neutral continent in the world by 2050.