Increasing levels of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere are causing changes to the climate and thereby the ecosystems and processes upon which human prosperity is based. Of particular concern are changes to the weather patterns, water availability, and agricultural productivity, as well as the loss of biodiversity upon which much of the resilience of natural systems is built.
Nestlé believes that it is imperative that governments, companies and individuals take measures to reduce the production of greenhouse gases. We also believe there is a general need for the provision of better information and insights for all stakeholders on climate change adaptation, plants that are better adapted for changing climate, and help for farmers to adopt better agricultural practices and landscape management techniques.
As well as increasing efforts in helping family farmers become resilient to weather changes, Nestle UK & Ireland has developed and implemented a process for assessing vulnerabilities, and developing and managing subsequent action plans and strategies for each of its sites in the UK. Although these plans are robust, it has become evident during the development of this process that there are significant potential opportunities in not only considering climate change across the value chain, but also on either a community or regional basis.
The area of research we are proposing is to develop a regional approach to climate change adaptation. This would cover regional vulnerability assessment and the development of a model to enable key stakeholders to understand which elements are pertinent to them both from a risk and resourcing perspective. This would enable optimisation of value from both an efficient resourcing perspective and impact mitigation perspective, for all potential regional stakeholders.
Nestle UK & Ireland are keen to partner on this or similarly aligned research and are able to provide mentoring or placement opportunities for associated partners as part of this research.