Exclusive-Brazilian meatpacker JBS says net-zero emissions pledge was ‘never a promise’ | U.S. & World [Video]

By Stefanie Eschenbacher, Luciana Magalhaes and Simon Jessop

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The world’s largest meatpacker, JBS, became in 2021 the first of its peers to commit to cutting or offsetting all its emissions by 2040, and to ending illegal deforestation across its long supply chain that starts in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. 

It used terms such as “commitment” and “pledge,” and a slogan that “anything less is not an option,” to describe its plan on calls with investors about a sustainable bond issue and in marketing materials, including for its beef. 

Nearly four years later, Jason Weller, global chief sustainability officer at the company in which the Batista family is the largest investor, told Reuters in a rare interview that its emissions goal was merely an “aspiration.” 

“It was never a promise that JBS was going to make this happen,” Weller said about the net-zero emissions pledge.

He also said JBS cannot control how farms …