Will Investors Embrace Food Systems Transformation? On this episode of The Plantbased Business Hour with Elysabeth Alfano, Mahesh Roy, Investor Strategies Programme Director of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, discusses the IIGCC perspective on investing in food systems transformation to combat Climate Change and partake in the potential growth of the sector.
Specifically, we discussed
- What is the IIGCC?
- Why do you believe that the global food systems shift is going to happen quickly?
- Why is the food sector the only sector that can be net zero by 2030?
- Why has IIGCC expanded to invest in food?
- What is your most critical tip for institutional and impact investors?
Below is a highlight clip and transcription from our long-form conversation.
Elysabeth: I want to bring on today’s guest, Mahesh Roy, who is the Investor Strategies Program Director at the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change.
So some of the comments that stayed with me since COP28 in December of 2023 were when you were on a panel with FAIRR and the former ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the FAO, and you were saying that you thought food systems transformation was going to take place really quickly and that investors would be diving into this opportunity. Why do you think that is?
Mahesh Roy: Well, I think I wouldn’t go 100% to say that it will happen very quickly. I think what’s promising is that it can happen very quickly and they can transition very quickly. So investors who have sort of signaled their commitment to aligning with the Paris Agreement and aligning their investment strategies with the Paris Agreement are obviously looking at different sectors and different areas of focus in which they can help the transition.
And if you look at the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change reports, their most recent one being AR6, you look at the different scenarios in the different sectors, the agriculture, forestry and other land use which food system sort of fits under, is a sector that can transform very quickly compared to say transport, which won’t make it by 2050, energy systems, which we hope will make it by 2050, and real estate, which will be well past 2050. There is the ability for food systems to transform in a way that is net zero by 2030.
And due to the increase in the focus on nature- I mentioned Nature Action 100 that we launched recently, it now has over 200 signatories in just a year engaging with 100 listed companies that sort of have the highest impact on nature. It shows that there’s a real will to understand how to move this transition as quickly as it can. But in saying that, you know, the practicalities mean that there are other things that need to be considered.
You just have to look at the farmers protests on the European continent recently which show that it isn’t a given. But I think certainly if there is the will from policymakers and the will from investors to sort of lean into this transition that it can happen very quickly. And you know, my own personal opinion is that those things are starting to come together and it will happen a lot more quickly than people think.
New episodes are out every week. Never miss the Plantbased Business Hour or Minute. Subscribe on iTunes and Youtube, and sign up for the newsletter. Follow Elysabeth on Linkedin. For information on Plant Powered Consulting, click here.
