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'Consumers must push industry for more sustainable products'
Updated 00:53, 10-Nov-2021
CGTN
02:46

 

Companies "need to have the courage to make the journey" to sustainability, says the CEO of a business that been transformed from one reliant on coal to one that now provides solutions to climate change. 

Dimitri de Vreeze is Co-CEO of Royal DSM, which has tackled the climate crisis head on by making such products as food additives to reduce methane emissions from cows and plant-based food alternatives to reduce greenhouse gases. 

 

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He was attending the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, where he told CGTN Europe: "There are 800m people in the world who are malnourished and there are 2bn people in the world who are overweight. That's an imbalance the we cannot and should not accept."

He added: "20 percent or more of the emissions of greenhouse gas come from livestock."

However, De Vreeze acknowledged that change isn't always easy and creating the massive shift needed for a different business environment needs to be a joint effort: "Together, consumers, industries and governments need to make that change," he said.

More specifically, he called for "governments to be more strict about requirements" on the sustainability of companies; for industry to "commit not only for the long term but also take action for the short term"; and for "consumers to push the industry for more sustainable solutions."

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