Five big supermarkets to halve environmental impact of weekly food shop by 2030

Published

3 years ago

November 6, 2021

admin

The UK’s five biggest supermarkets will try to halve the environmental impact of a weekly food shop by the end of the decade.

It is the latest climate promise made during the COP26 summit in Glasgow, and it comes as the UK announces it will lead 45 governments in moving towards more sustainable ways of farming.

Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Co-op and M&S will work with the World Wide Fund for Nature to halve:

• The amount of global warming that shopping baskets cause

• The forests that are cut down to fill the baskets

• The impact of the agriculture and seafood in baskets

• The food waste and packaging they produce

They also promised targets to help keep global warming below 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures.

In a joint statement, the supermarket bosses said: “As CEOs of leading UK food retailers, we recognise that a future without nature is a future without food. By 2030 we need to halt the loss of nature.”

WWF chief executive Tanya Steele said: “Food production is one of the biggest threats to our planet and we will only tackle the climate and nature emergency if food retailers play their part.”

It comes as 45 governments set out their plans to transform agriculture and food systems while reducing emissions, protecting nature, securing food, and safeguarding jobs.

Their commitment will include:

• Leveraging more than $4bn (£3bn) of new public sector investment into agricultural innovation such as climate-resilient crops and ways to improve soil health, making these available to farmers around the world

• Supporting “action agendas” which set out how governments, farmers and others can make food systems sustainable

• The UK will launch a £500m package to protect five million hectares of rainforest from deforestation

• The UK’s funding will create thousands of “green jobs” in rainforest regions and generate £1bn of private sector investment to tackle climate change around the world

Environment Secretary George Eustice said: “There needs to be a fair and just transition that protects the livelihoods and food security of millions of people worldwide – with farmers, indigenous people and local communities playing a central role in these plans.”

Anna Jones, head of forests and food at Greenpeace UK, said the plans did not go far enough, adding: “Efforts to address supply chains are limited to little more than a talking shop around terms of trade for agricultural commodities.

“And there’s nothing on the need to reduce demand for products like meat and dairy that are driving deforestation – a real red flag for cash going straight into the pockets of the big ag companies that caused the nature crisis in the first place.”

Matt Williams, climate and land programme lead at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “Many farmers have come to Glasgow to talk about what they’re already doing to cut their climate impact, and to ask for a seat at the table.

“Consumers are increasingly vocal about imported food that’s connected to deforestation overseas, and governments and companies are hearing this message.

“These government pledges to change how they incentivise farmers, and supermarket promises to cut their impact, can serve up a result that’s good for people, nature, and the climate.”

The UK will also announce new spending from the £3bn fund for nature, including:

• Nearly £25m out of the £150m from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Mobilising Finance for Forests programme to develop sustainable supply chains in tropical countries

• Over £38m for a new research to address the climate crisis and protect nature while advancing gender equality, poverty reduction, and food and nutrition security

• Up to £40m to establish the Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate. This will address critical research gaps in how the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity can deliver climate solutions and improve livelihoods in developing countries

Subscribe to ClimateCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Spreaker

For full coverage of COP26, watch Climate Live on Sky channel 525.

Follow live coverage on web and app with our dedicated live blog.

Get all the latest stories, special reports and in-depth analysis at skynews.com/cop26

Business

Insurer Hiscox lines up chairman months after Bayesian sinking

Published

12 hours ago

April 7, 2025

admin

Hiscox, the London-listed insurer, is close to naming a new chairman nearly eight months after the drowning of Jonathan Bloomer on the luxury yacht of technology tycoon Mike Lynch.

Sky News has learnt that Hiscox has narrowed its search to candidates including Richard Berliand, who chairs the interdealer broker TP ICAP.

Insurance insiders said that Mr Berliand was among fewer than a handful of potential successors to Mr Bloomer.

The sinking of the Bayesian off the Sicilian coast last August claimed the lives of Mr Lynch and his daughter, along with five other passengers, including Mr Bloomer.

A former boss of Prudential, Mr Bloomer was a well-liked figure in the City.

He had chaired Hiscox for just a year when he died.

The identities of the other candidates being considered by the company were unclear on Monday.

Hiscox, which has a market capitalisation of just over £3.8bn, has seen its shares slip by about 12pc over the last year.

It was founded as a single underwriter at Lloyd’s in 1901.

A Hiscox spokesperson declined to comment.

Business

Asian stock markets tumble – with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index suffering worst fall for 28 years

Published

17 hours ago

April 7, 2025

admin

Asian stock markets tumble - with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index suffering worst fall for 28 years

Asian stock markets have fallen dramatically amid escalating fears of a global trade war – as Donald Trump called his tariffs “medicine” and showed no sign of backing down.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index of shares closed down 13.2% – its biggest drop since 1997, while the Shanghai composite index lost 7.3% – the worst fall there since 2020.

Taiwan’s stock market was also hammered, losing nearly 10% on Monday, its biggest one-day drop on record.

Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 7.8%, while London’s FTSE 100 was down 4.85% by 9am.

Tariffs latest – FTSE falls after Asian markets tumble

US stock market futures signalled further losses were ahead when trading begins in America later.

At 4am EST, the S&P 500 futures was down 4.93%, the Dow Jones 4.32% and the Nasdaq 5.33%.

Markets are reacting to ongoing uncertainty over the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on goods imported to the US, which he announced last week.

Speaking on Air Force One on Sunday, Mr Trump said foreign governments would have to pay “a lot of money” to lift his tariffs.

“I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said.

The US president said world leaders were trying to convince him to lower further tariffs, which are due to take effect this week.

“I spoke to a lot of leaders, European, Asian, from all over the world,” Mr Trump told reporters.

“They’re dying to make a deal. And I said, we’re not going to have deficits with your country.

“We’re not going to do that because to me, a deficit is a loss. We’re going to have surpluses or, at worst, going to be breaking even.”

Mr Trump, who spent much of the weekend playing golf in Florida, posted on his Truth Social platform: “WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy.”

President Trump believes his policy will make the US richer, forcing companies to relocate more manufacturing to America and creating jobs.

However, his announcement has shocked stock markets, triggered retaliatory levies from China and sparked fears of a global trade war.

Reality hits that trade war no longer just a threat

China’s announcement of its tariff retaliation came late afternoon on Friday local time.

Most Asian markets closed shortly after – and markets in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were closed for a public holiday – meaning the scale of the hit did not play out until today.

This morning we are getting a sense of the impact. Dramatic falls across all Asian markets clearly signal a realisation a global trade war is no longer just a threat, but a reality here to stay, and a global recession could yet follow.

Up until Friday, China’s response to Donald Trump’s tariffs had been perceived as restrained and designed to avoid escalation, the markets had reacted accordingly.

But that all changed last week when Mr Trump’s new 34% levy on all Chinese goods was matched by China with an identical tax. Both sit on top of previous tariffs levied, meaning many goods now face rates in excess of 50%.

These are numbers that make most trade between the world’s two biggest economies almost impossible and that will have a global impact.

China has clearly decided any forthcoming pain will have to be managed, and not being seen to be cowed and bullied by Mr Trump is being deemed more important.

But the scale of the retaliation will have further spooked the markets as it makes the prospect of negotiation and retreat increasingly unlikely.

Mr Trump added to the atmosphere of intransigence when he told the media on Sunday the trade deficit with China would need to be addressed before any deal could be done. The complete lack of concern from the White House over the weekend will also not have helped.

While smaller economies like Japan, South Korea, Cambodia and Vietnam are all lining up to attempt to negotiate, there are a lot of nations in that queue.

There is a sense none of this will be easily rectified.

US customs agents began collecting Mr Trump’s baseline 10% tariff on Saturday.

Higher “reciprocal” tariffs of between 11% and 50% – depending on the country – are due to kick in on Wednesday.

Investors and world leaders are unsure whether the US tariffs are here to stay or a negotiating tactic to win concessions from other countries.

Richard Flax, chief investment officer at wealth manager Moneyfarm, said: “I guess there was some hope over the weekend that maybe we would see this as part of the start of a negotiation.

“But the messages that we’ve so far seen suggest that the President Trump is comfortable with the market reaction and that he’s going to continue on this course.

Goldman Sachs has raised the odds of a US recession to 45%, joining other investment banks that have also revised their forecasts.

👉 Follow Trump 100 on your podcast app 👈

In the UK, Sir Keir Starmer has promised “bold changes” and said he would relax rules around electric vehicles as British carmakers deal with a new 25% US tariff on vehicles.

The prime minister said “global trade is being transformed” by President Trump’s actions.

KPMG has warned tariffs on UK exports could see GDP growth fall to 0.8% in 2025 and 2026.

The accountancy firm said higher tariffs on specific categories, such as cars, aluminium and steel, would more than offset the exemption on pharmaceutical exports, leaving the effective tariff rate around 12%.

Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said: “Given the economic impact that tariffs would cause, there is a strong incentive to seek a negotiated settlement that diminishes the need for tariffs.

“The UK automotive manufacturing sector is particularly exposed given the complex supply chains of some producers.”

Business

Trump’s tariffs: A negotiating tactic or the start of an ‘economic nuclear winter’?

Published

19 hours ago

April 7, 2025

admin

Trump's tariffs: A negotiating tactic or the start of an 'economic nuclear winter'?

Traders called this morning a complete bloodbath as the UK’s FTSE 100 joined world indexes in turning red as uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs continued to batter stock markets.

Across Asia and Europe, hundreds of billions have been wiped off companies’ values, particularly in banking and manufacturing.

The cause is not just the imposition of those tariffs (the largest the US has inflicted since the 1930s) and the very obvious drag this will have on global trade and growth, but also the uncertainty of ‘what next?’.

Trump tariffs latest: Musk shares video about ‘essential’ free market

Investors cannot work out if the Trump administration is genuinely wedded to tariffs on this scale, on the proviso that they will help re-shore companies and millions of jobs to the United States.

They don’t know if they are permanent or merely part of a negotiating tactic to address trade imbalances, and for America to use its economic heft to strike better deals.

If Mr Trump is open to deals (the first test comes later in a meeting with the Israeli prime minister), markets will calm, even if the midst of uncertainty hasn’t fully cleared.

However, if this is a genuine rewiring of global trade and the end of globalisation as we know it, markets and economies will continue to get battered.

As one Trump supporter, billionaire Bill Ackman – who opposes the tariffs – put it, President Trump has launched a “global economic war against the whole world” that will usher in an “economic nuclear winter.”

It’s time for all of us to buckle up.