Speech addresses food systems resilience link to climate change
LRQA, the world’s leading provider of professional assurance services, took centre stage during one of the COP21 Paris Climate Change Conference’s keynote sessions. Vincent Doumeizel, Strategic Marketing Manager and the LRQA representative at COP21, addressed the conference on the importance of food safety resilience and built on the work that the Lloyd’s Register Foundation started during an April 2015 workshop held at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey.
Following the keynote session, Doumeizel commented on the importance of food safety and ensuring a sustainable global food supply chain, “The footprint of the global food supply chain has a direct impact on climate change, with water conservation, food security and the transportation of foodstuffs around the world all front and centre for global food manufacturing, production and retail organisations. We are increasingly seeing our clients making a direct link between climate change, corporate social responsibility and their financial bottom line.”
The April 2015 Lloyd’s Register Foundation workshop featured participants from more than 12 countries over five continents, fostering discussions on the emerging field of resilience engineering, and to exploring how the Lloyd’s Register Foundation might make a distinctive contribution to the field. Experts came from a wide range of infrastructure sectors including healthcare, transport, food and water and brought perspectives from industry, government, city and regional-scale planning, and from academia.
Based on the April workshop and subsequent consultations, in October 2015 the Lloyd’s Register Foundation published a foresight review that explores how resilience engineering could enhance the safety of life and property through the improved resilience of engineered structures, systems, organisations and communities around the world. The report can be downloaded at http://www.lrfoundation.org.
COP 21 – also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference is, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, aiming to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C. The conference runs from 30 November – 11December 2015. COP21 is expected to attract 147 of the world’s leaders, close to 50, 000 participants including 25, 000 official delegates from government, intergovernmental organisations, UN agencies, NGOs and civil society.
The Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity established in 2012, funds the advancement of engineering-related education and research and supports work that enhances safety of life at sea, on land and in the air. The Foundation is funded partly by the profits of their trading arm, the Lloyd’s Register Group Limited (LR), a global engineering, technical and business services organisation. LRQA is a member of the LR group.
About LRQA
LRQA is a member of the Lloyd’s Register group. LRQA is a leading independent provider of assurance services including assessment, certification, validation, verification and training across a broad spectrum of standards and schemes.
About Lloyd’s Register
Lloyd’s Register (LR) is a global engineering, technical and business services organisation wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and engineering. Founded in 1760 as a marine classification society, LR now operates across many industry sectors, with over 9000 employees in 78 countries.
Lloyd’s Register has a long-standing reputation for integrity, impartiality and technical excellence. Our compliance, risk and technical consultancy services give clients confidence that their assets and businesses are safe, sustainable and dependable. Through its global technology centres and research network, Lloyd’s Register is at the forefront of understanding the application of new science and technology to future-proof its clients’ businesses.
About the Lloyd’s Register Foundation
The Lloyd’s Register Foundation is a UK charity, established in 2012, which funds the advancement of engineering-related education and research and supports work that enhances safety of life and property. It is funded partly by the profits of its trading arm, Lloyd’s Register Group Limited, a global engineering, technical and business services organisation.
Its vision is to be known worldwide as a leading supporter of engineering-related research, training and education that makes a real difference in improving the safety of the critical infrastructure on which modern society relies. In support of this, it promotes scientific excellence and acts as a catalyst working with others to achieve maximum impact.
The Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s strategy for 2014-2020 focuses funding on four strategic themes: promoting safety and public understanding of risk; advancing skills and education; supporting excellent scientific research; and accelerating the application of research. Four research themes have been prioritised: structural integrity and systems performance; resilience engineering; human and social factors; and emergent technologies. See more at:www.lrfoundation.org.uk/
