Fairmiles calls for fairness and accuracy in the race to net zero

As world leaders meet at COP30 to discuss how to achieve their climate targets, Fairmiles is calling for greater balance in the global race to net zero, warning that progress must not come at the expense of livelihoods or be based on questionable data.

Millions of livelihoods in the global south depend on growing, processing, and packing fresh produce for markets in the EU and the UK. This trade generates positive socio-economic impacts and continues to offer vital opportunities for economic growth.

In many cases, airfreighting perishable products is the only viable transport option. Yet, in retailers’ efforts to reduce emissions, such supply chains have come under scrutiny. In reality, emissions related to airfreighting fresh produce typically make only a fractional contribution to the overall carbon footprint of retailers.

Focus on Just Transition

A narrow focus on emissions alone misses the wider context, including the benefits of these trading relationships for communities in producer countries. Such considerations are increasingly discussed by academics under the term ‘Just Transition’: the idea that, to be fair, the path to net zero must be differentiated between countries and sectors based on their historic emissions and levels of economic development.

Fairmiles aims to develop good practice for Just Transitions in relation to airfreighted fresh produce by involving all relevant stakeholders: producers, exporters, retailers, consumers, academics, and NGOs.

In this context, a recent Fairmiles workshop brought together retailers, NGOs, and academics to begin work to co-design a set of Just Transition Guidelines for Retail Buyers.

This will be a practical framework to help businesses reduce emissions responsibly while supporting communities that depend on international trade.

Achieving a balance

We absolutely must reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, but we also need to make sure that doing so doesn’t destroy livelihoods or limit opportunity in the global south. Some of the backlash against net zero stems from people fearing exactly that. The answer isn’t to pull back on climate action, it’s to make it fair.

The discussion comes at a time when questions are also being raised about the accuracy of emissions data used to guide decarbonisation decisions. A recent Air Cargo News article (5 November 2025) headlined “Unfair cargo emissions calculations favouring freighters over bellyhold”, revealed what industry leaders described as “huge differences” in the way emissions are calculated between freighter aircraft and cargo carried in passenger flights.

In the latter case, passengers – not the cargo – are the reason the flight operates. This disparity, they warn, could distort how responsibility for emissions is allocated, and in turn, the policies and trade decisions built upon that data.

If the allocation of these data are wrong, the decisions taken are likely wrong, and that will have real-world consequences for the climate and the farming communities in the global south that rely on trade with the EU and the UK.

We need to make sure our climate strategies look beyond emissions as a single metric and consider social and developmental outcomes. Otherwise, we risk harming the very people and businesses that have the most to lose.

Fairmiles argues that achieving net zero and protecting livelihoods are not opposing goals, but two sides of the same challenge. Ensuring fairness, both in the social impact of decarbonisation and in the accuracy of the data used to drive it, is essential to restore public trust and deliver climate action that works for everyone.

The consortium plans to publish its first set of Fairmiles Just Transition Principles over the coming months, providing a blueprint for how buyers can decarbonise their supply chains in ways that are both ambitious and inclusive.