COP16 and COP29 – Conference of the Parties to the United Nations conventions on biodiversity and climate change – highlighted differences of opinion on accountability and financing and were generally thought of as falling short of desired results. But luxury groups used the platforms to announce stricter environmental targets, and a methane reduction strategy could add impetus to the argument for tanning hides instead of landfilling.

Alongside representatives from most of the world’s governments at the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16) in Cali, Colombia, last autumn, were parties that saw themselves as an important piece of the jigsaw when it comes to preserving the world’s ecosystems. In fact, there were more business representatives than ever before, raising questions over influence and agenda, with groups such CropLife International and Exxon Mobil sending more delegates than some countries.

Represented among the businesses was luxury group Kering, which chose the conference to announce it was the first to adopt verified Science Based Targets for Nature (SBTN) for both land and fresh water following a year-long pilot study. The owner of Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga has set its initial sights on the Arno basin in Tuscany, where most of its tanneries and supplier tanneries are located. It aims to reduce water use in the basin by 21% by 2030, a target that will be rolled out to other locations over the coming months. Shortly after the conference, it increased its stake in Colonna Group, a key leather supplier, through its subsidiary Gucci Logistica, from 51% to 100%. The move includes three tanneries – Marbella Pellami, Conceria 800 and Falco Pellami in Santa Croce sull’Arno – which will be central to achieving the target.

Kering suggested working with SBTN also helped strengthen its deforestation and conversion-free commitments, notably to include more detailed land-use change assessments associated with the group’s sourcing of leather. It will also focus on promoting regenerative practices and enhancing biodiversity in sourcing regions, including Olive Leaf’s Grass project in South Africa, from which it buys sheep wool and leather.

Luxury targets

The SBTN pilot included 17 other companies, such as rival luxury group LVMH, which also used the analysis to set more stringent targets on biodiversity, launched directly after COP16. New initiatives include a scheme with the World Wildlife Fund to preserve the Congo Basin rainforest, as part of its LIFE 360 programme. It has chosen to  adopt SBTN targets relating to a wool supply chain in Asia and grapes in France.

LVMH’s total carbon footprint is 6.3 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent, and to align the carbon trajectory with the Paris Agreement it will need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to sites and store energy consumption by 50% by 2026 (compared with a base year of 2019) through a 100% renewable energy policy, and reduce Scope 3 (raw materials and transport) GHG emissions by 55% by 2030. At that point, all of the group's new products will follow an eco-design process, and repair services will be extended, as as well as upcycling or reusing leather through its Nona Source platform, which it has opened up to other companies.

Also by 2030, 100% of the group’s supply chains will have a dedicated traceability system. Part of this will include “strengthening the integration of livestock and tanning activities” - which could potentially mean some acquisitions. By 2023, it could specify country of origin for 96% of sheep and leather, but only 88% of wool. By 2026, all new products will include a dedicated information system. 

The overall focus for COP16 was to write into legislation how important biodiversity is to the globe’s well-being and agree set plans for preserving it. The official line hailed the conference as a “resounding success” having “unprecedented impact”, highlighting the Cali Fund, a deal on Digital Sequence Information, whereby genetic information that has been sequenced from the natural world can be made available, and the establishment of a permanent body for indigenous peoples and local communities. However, despite more than 170 official delegations, 40,000 people involved in discussions and a million visitors, the conference closed without agreement on who exactly should pay what and how it would be monitored. 

Climate debates

Fast-forward 10 days and 12,700km and another important COP conference, COP29: the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Held in Baku, Azerbaijan, and attracting 70,000 attendees, this summit wanted  to build on an important agreement reached at the previous iteration in Dubai – namely, a move away from fossil fuels – and agree how the world would finance reducing its warming to the Paris Summit-agreed limit of 1.5 degrees. The event’s location in an oil-rich country was a bone of contention, as was the absence of some of the biggest players and, again, the proliferation of business interests.

In advance of the event, the International Council of Tanners, the Leather and Hide Council of America and Leather Naturally alongside 30 other bodies reissued a manifesto calling on delegates to recognise the positive role that long-lasting leather products can have in reducing consumption and the environmental impact of the fashion industry, building on a document published three years ago for COP26. Expanding on previous messages, the latest manifesto called for leather “to be part of the solution to climate change”, as well as “informed, holistic measures of the impact of materials”. It urges regulators to recognise the challenges faced by the leather industry, noting that it is “constantly working towards ever greater sustainability and circularity”, but that its efforts will be undermined if regulators and brands do not give “proper consideration to the real impacts and benefits of natural materials like leather”. It also calls for measures of environmental impact, including lifecycle analysis, to take full account of all aspects of the production of any material.

Methane focus

During the conference, the European Commission launched a Methane Abatement Partnership Roadmap to accelerate the reduction of methane emissions associated with fossil energy production and consumption. Under the Global Methane Pledge, launched by the EU and the US, more than 150 countries are implementing a collective goal of reducing global anthropogenic [agriculture, fossil fuels and landfill waste] methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030, from 2020 levels. While the pledge has been a catalyst for action, reports show the countries are falling short. 

UNEP-convened Climate and Clean Air Coalition Technology & Economic Assessment Panel – a partnership of 182 governments, intergovernmental organisations and non-governmental organisations  –  published a report on Digital Extension Services for Livestock (DSL), or tools that help farmers to facilitate knowledge transfer and allow for a better understanding of the impact of animal diets, veterinary care and breeding on methane emissions. Launched at a COP29 side event, the report calls for investments to support the roll-out of DSL – particularly given that agriculture contributes 40% of anthropogenic methane emissions but receives only 2% of total climate funding, it said. 

Waste reduction

Since its launch at COP28 in Dubai, the Lowering Organic Waste Methane (LOW-Methane) initiative has made progress. A coalition of 30 organisations is working with govern- ments to accelerate delivery of the Global Methane Pledge and the Paris Agreement by cutting at least 1 million tonnes of annual methane emissions from the waste sector before 2030. Food waste accounts for 20% of all methane emissions, delegates heard. Thirty nations, representing half of  global organic waste emissions, endorsed a declaration committing to tackling this. Among the comments was the idea that lowering methane emissions can be “our emergency brake in the climate emergency”. 

Secretary of the International Council of Tanners Kerry Senior, who spent an “interesting and busy” few days at the conference, commented, “The impact of these policies for leather remains to be seen. Livestock will be an obvious target for reducing methane emissions. But minimising organic waste emissions may draw attention to the issue of hide disposal and the need to maximise their use. What better way to do that than to produce leather?”

This message ties in with new analysis from the Leather and Hide Council of America (LHCA) that suggests the previously accepted figures that that one tonne of wasted hides would generate emissions of around 850 kilos of CO2-equivalent is far too low, and the true figure is in fact closer to 13,000 kilos (see the Oct/Nov 2024 issue of World Leather). “Choosing not to turn hides into leather generates emissions of more than 40 million tonnes of CO2e per year,” says Kevin Latner, vice-president of LCHA, working on the basis that as many as 130 million hides might go to waste every year.

Mirroring COP16,  at its conclusion, COP29 delegates were left unable to strike the deals and reach the agreements that the countries bearing the brunt of climate change were hoping for. However, developed countries did agree to provide at least $300 billion per year to developing countries by 2035 to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “I had hoped for a more ambitious outcome – on both finance and mitigation – to meet the great challenge we face,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. “But this agreement provides a base on which to build.”

Dr Kerry Senior added the leather industry must find a way “to have its voice heard and to have policymakers understand the climate-positive benefit of avoiding hide waste”. He has called for senior representatives of the global leather industry to work as hard as possible to put this message across to political and business leaders at the next COP climate conference, which will be held in Belem, Brazil, in November.

Tuscan tannery Conceria 800, recently bought by Kering, could be among leather makers that will be tasked with cutting water usage in its operations.
Credit: Conceria 800

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