Crédit Agricole, as part of its Societal Project, made a commitment to guide its customers towards sustainable economic models and animal welfare is one of the key components of this sustainability.
Crédit Agricole safeguards and anticipates the respect of regulatory changes and societal demands in order to support its customers in investments which respect animal welfare and are economically viable. This support involves in particular promoting awareness and training of employees in charge of agriculture and agro-food projects. It encourages companies to adopt good practices all along the chain and requests that companies depending on their activity:
- respect the European convention for the protection of livestock and the Council directive 98/58/EC establishing minimum requirements for the protection of animals in Europe;
- respect by category each Council directive 1999/74/EC (egg-laying hens), 2007/43/EC (broiler chickens), 2008/119/EC (cattle) et 2008/120/EC (pigs) all transposed into French law.
The wish to preserve animal welfare is part of the bedrock of agri-agro transitions, the key indicator of the Group’s actions to support its agriculture and agro-food customers towards greater sustainability within the framework of its financing and investments. This major issue is addressed in the “ESG Implementation Guide” and the “Agriculture transitions questionnaire” which has been deployed to all corporate and agriculture customers throughout the Crédit Agricole Regional banks network. These questionnaires enable advisors to better understand and evaluate the ESG awareness, including animal welfare awareness, of their customers. To support the Societal Project, a training program on agri-agro transitions which includes a section on animal welfare has been put in place for employees and advisors.
The first investment fund in the banking sector “Ambition Agri-Agro Investment”, launched in February 2023 by IDIA Capital Investment includes “preservation of animal welfare” in its sustainability criteria. This vehicle is dedicated to supporting actors of the agro-food chain committed to a transformation making a positive contribution to the issues at stake in the agricultural and agro-food transition.
Amundi is working with FAIRR, a coalition of investors whose aim is to engage with companies in the food sector to raise awareness of the ESG risks linked to intensive farming and to help them evolve in their practices.