According to Greenpeace, Jbs's expansion plans are incompatible with the company's obligations on climate and biodiversity, and it is bringing the case before a Dutch court.
Greenpeace Netherlands has filed a petition with a Dutch court requesting that Jbs, the Brazilian multinational and global leader in meat production, be compelled to make public documents regarding its global expansion plan and how this is compatible with its responsibilities towards the climate, nature and human rights.
Until now, similar cases have only been brought against companies in the fossil fuel sector: now, however, this case opens a new frontier in the fight against climate change, potentially setting a precedent for legal action against the agricultural sector, which is the leading cause of deforestation and one of the main sources of methane emissions. "The main objective is to challenge Jbs's business model and expansion model," Richard Brown, legal adviser to Greenpeace International, told the Guardian. "We suspect they are proceeding blindly and are not gathering the information needed to understand the impacts."
At the heart of the petition against Jbs is the lack of transparency over its $6 billion expansion plans, with nearly half earmarked for Nigeria. This marks the first investment in sub-Saharan Africa, aimed at building six meat production facilities.
Greenpeace and local Nigerian associations fear that the expansion will cause irreversible environmental damage and threaten access to essential resources for communities' food security. According to the organisations, there is scarce information regarding Jbs's assessment of the social and environmental consequences of this plan, which would threaten smallholder farmers, national food security, land and water use priorities, as well as entailing enormous methane emissions.
In Brazil, Jbs's country of origin, the giant has repeatedly promised to make its supply chain more transparent and clean with regard to deforestation by 2025, but has failed to honour those commitments. As Greenpeace reports, Jbs has abandoned its pledge of "net zero emissions by 2040" and in its latest sustainability report excluded the calculation of indirect emissions from cattle farming, which represent a fundamental component of its climate impact.
Last year Jbs relocated its headquarters to the Netherlands as part of its strategy to list on the New York Stock Exchange: the move gave the company access to international financial markets to raise funds for expansion, but also exposed it to stricter rules such as the Dutch duty of care, which requires individuals and companies to act with reasonable care to prevent harm to people and the environment (the law on which Greenpeace's petition is based).
Greenpeace Netherlands believes that Jbs's historical business practices and its future expansion plans are incompatible with the company's obligations on climate and biodiversity and that they therefore violate the Dutch duty of care. The court's response is now awaited: if the judge rules in favour of Greenpeace, the organisation says it will be a major victory for transparency against the interests of multinationals, and crucial information to counter Jbs's practices will become accessible.