Climate change
Taking climate action
The agricultural sector is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, while also contributing a significant proportion of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
We have adopted a clear and effective climate strategy in order to address the climate change challenges facing our industry. In particular, we seek to reduce land use emissions, while promoting food security and ensuring the long-term sustainability of our business. Within our operations, we continuously identify opportunities to improve energy efficiency and increase our use of renewable energy.
To achieve our strategy, we have defined clear, science-based targets to lower direct emissions (Scope 1), indirect emissions from energy consumption (Scope 2), and emissions across our supply chain (Scope 3). These efforts help us to strengthen our business and build resilience, while contributing to achieving global climate goals.
Our Commitment to Deforestation and Conversion Free Sourcing
In line with our SBTi validated climate targets, we have committed to achieving deforestation free soy and corn supply chains globally and conversion free soy and corn supply chains in South America by the end of 2025. This means that we prioritise the purchase of soybeans and corn with the lowest emissions intensity sourced from long established croplands and classify volumes linked to recent land use change as higher emitting. Read more about our DCF sourcing here.
COFCO International’s emissions reduction targets
Our climate targets are approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), with reductions compared to a 2021 baseline.
Our short-term targets cover COFCO International’s entire GHG footprint, guiding our climate strategy and supporting the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
Approval of our targets by SBTi ensures their robust nature and provides transparency and clarity to our stakeholders. The SBTi platform is comprised of partners including the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute (WRI), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), CDP and We Mean Business coalition. SBTi have validated the climate targets of more than 5,000 companies representing 34% of the global economy.
Climate targets
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- Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 54.6% by 2033.
- Scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services, upstream transportation and downstream transportation by 32.5% by 2033.
The target boundary includes land-related emissions and removals from bioenergy feedstocks.
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- Scope 1 FLAG emissions by 39.4% by 2033.
- Scope 3 FLAG emissions by 46% per tonne of soybean by 2033.
- Scope 3 FLAG emissions by 45% per tonne of maize by 2033.
COFCO International commits to no deforestation across its primary deforestation-linked commodities, with a target date of 2025.
The target includes FLAG emissions and removals.
Case studies
Decarbonising our maritime freight operations
Shipping is of vital economic importance, transporting some 80% of global trade. However, there is much to be done to lower shipping emissions by 2050. The greatest opportunity we have to reduce freight emissions is in relation to our time-chartered vessels, which represent over three quarters of our Scope 1 and 2 emissions. To lower these emissions, we are optimising voyages and leveraging energy-saving technology. We are also working to reduce the emissions of voyage-chartered vessels (Scope 3), including by collaborating with the maritime freight sector. We support Global Maritime Forum’s Getting to Zero coalition, Suisse Négoce, and events such as Geneva Dry. As a signatory to the Sea Cargo Charter (SCC), we report the annual progress of our chartering activities towards the industry’s decarbonisation journey. In 2024, we improved our monitoring of fuel emissions for chartered vessels, obtaining information for significantly more voyages.
Measuring the GHG emissions of soy farmers in Argentina
In Argentina, as part of a pilot project to assess and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we worked with 20 soybean farmers covering a total of 60,000 hectares to help measure their emissions and identify opportunities for future reductions. Together, they represented volumes of 40,000 metric tonnes of soybean, delivered to our Saforcada complex, ready to be used for flour or within oil or biofuel production.
