Consumption of animal products such as meat and dairy has increased at an unprecedented pace since 1950s, with people in the Global North now consuming more than twice what is considered healthy. The number of animals grown for food currently stands at 30 billion, four times the number of humans on the planet, which is having significant negative environmental impacts. Animal agriculture is responsible for 16.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 32% of all human-caused methane emissions. Moreover, it requires huge amounts of natural resources, including 70-80% of all agricultural land devoted to growing animal feed and pasture, and around half of all water that is used for food production. Nevertheless, livestock production is forecast to grow further, particularly driven by population growth and the expansion of the middle-classes in emerging economies. This campaign is focused on the need to rapidly cut methane emissions from livestock and transition to healthier diets with less and better meat and dairy.
Net-zero integrity: Nestlé’s methane blindspot.
April 2023
Nestlé is among the largest food companies in the world, with a huge climate footprint. Due to its focus on dairy, a large chunk of their emissions comes from powerful, but short-lived greenhouse gas, methane. We estimated that the company’s dairy supply chains emit roughly 8.7 million tonnes of methane (in CO2 equivalent) – twice as much as the methane emissions from Switzerland’s entire livestock sector. In light of its huge contribution towards global warming, this briefing analyses Nestlé’s climate plan to reach net zero by 2050. We analysed its net-zero roadmap against the ‘Integrity Matters’ report, published by the High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities in November 2022 and endorsed by UN Secretary General, who said this report sets a new standard for companies’ net zero commitments. The analysis finds that Nestlé’s plan is not fit-for-purpose: out of the nine (relevant) recommendations, it has ‘partially met’ five and completely failed four. Crucially, Nestlé’s plan also ignores climate science with regards to the crucial role that cutting methane emissions plays in staying below 1.5 degree temperature increase. The company does not have a separate science-based methane target and does not report its methane emissions separately. Current trends demonstrate Nestlé’s lack of ambition: over the last five years company’s GHG emissions targeted by the net-zero plan have only dropped by 1%.
Download the report
Full report
Feeding Us Greenwash: An analysis of misleading claims in the food sector
March 2023
This report exposes the rampant greenwashing by the food industry and explores how consumers respond to green claims made by companies. Over the past year, Changing Markets conducted market research to assess how reliable green claims on food products are, with a particular emphasis on meat and dairy, as the climate impacts of these products dwarfs those any other food. This resulted in the addition of over 50 examples of products, projects and advertisements to our greenwash.com website, where we track corporate greenwashing.
In this briefing we summarise the key trends identified through this analysis and present the findings of the YouGov polling that we commissioned in the UK and Germany. The polling was designed to explore whether the most common green claims in the food sector are impacting consumer choice. We found that almost half (49%) of adults in the UK and Germany regularly buy products with sustainability labels or certification and that almost a third (29%) are willing to pay more for products labelled carbon neutral, climate positive or low methane.
This confirms that there is a clear opportunity for businesses to capitalise on people’s environmental concerns through greenwashing, without taking genuine positive action for the environment. Therefore, it is urgent that regulators start taking a closer look at food products and companies, regulate green claims, and ensure rules are properly enforced across different markets.
Download the report
Full report
Executive summary (English)
Executive summary (German)
Hot Money: 40 Financial Institutions are funding a climate-changing agri-methane footprint
January 2023
This joint report with Planet Tracker focuses on the 20 investors and 20 banks that are funding the methane generating activities of 15 of the leading meat and dairy companies worldwide. Collectively these financial institutions fund a methane footprint that could exceed 503 Mt CO2e – nearly as big as the CO2 emissions of Saudi Arabia. Top 20 investors (including Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street and Fidelity) have a methane footprint of 68 mt of CO2e – similar to the CO2 footprint of Austria – from their investments in these companies. The top 20 banks (including JPMorgan Chase and Co., Morgan Stanley, HSBC, Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas) have a methane footprint of 202.5 Mt CO2e – almost 3x higher than investors and close to the CO2 footprint of countries like Spain. They provided funding of USD 400 billion to these major meat and dairy companies for the past 10 years.
This report also shows that none of these financial institutions have policies or commitments in place to cut methane from agriculture. This is in spite of the fact that all but one are based in countries that have signed the Global Methane pledge.
Download the report
Full report
Emissions Impossible: How emissions from big meat and dairy are heating up the planet – Methane Edition
November 2022
This joint report with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) for the first time estimates the methane emissions of five of the largest meat and ten of the largest dairy companies. Their combined methane emissions are roughly 12.8 million tonnes, which equates to over 80% of the European Union’s entire methane footprint. These companies’ emissions represent around 3.4% of all global anthropogenic methane emissions and 11.1% of the world’s livestock-related methane. Individual companies’ methane emissions are also comparable to countries’ livestock-related methane emissions. For instance, Marfrig’s methane emissions rival those of Australia’s entire livestock sector, Tyson’s are comparable to the Russian Federation’s, and Dairy Farmers of America’s to the livestock methane of the UK. JBS’s methane emissions far outpace all other companies. Its methane emissions exceed the combined livestock methane emissions of France, Germany, Canada and New Zealand or compare to 55% of US livestock methane.
The report also provides the latest estimates for the overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the same companies, which amount to around 734 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent – higher than the emissions of Germany. If these 15 companies were treated as a country, they would be the tenth largest GHG-emitting jurisdiction in the world. Their combined emissions also exceed those of oil companies such as ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell.All of the governments where these companies are headquartered (with the exception of China) have signed up to the Pledge. They must significantly ramp up ambition to reduce methane from the livestock industry. Our findings show that a comprehensive set of regulations is needed, including binding GHG and methane reduction targets for the agriculture sector in line with the global goal of limiting temperature increase to 1.5°C.
Download the report
Full report
Executive summary (English)
Executive summary (Spanish)
Executive summary (French)
Executive summary (Portuguese)
Executive summary (German)
Detailed Calculations
Methane Matters: Towards a global methane agreement
November 2022
At the 2021 Climate Change Conference, over 110 countries joined a pledge to reduce global methane emissions by 30% by 2030. This crucial commitment under the ‘Global Methane Pledge’ came at a time of scientific reckoning that focusing on methane emissions (in addition to carbon dioxide) is the best strategy to slow down the rate of global heating.
The briefing, prepared in partnership with Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Global Alliance for Incineration Alternatives (GAIA), is follow up to the ‘Methane Matters’ toolkit published in March 2022, where we proposed key mitigation measures for governments across all three high methane emitting sectors. This new briefing provides an update ahead of Cop27 in Egypt, exploring how to move from pledge to action as a collective of countries. To deliver enduring methane emissions reductions at the scale required, the briefing advocates that countries should work toward quickly adopting a global methane agreement. This would provide an overarching framework to measure progress towards necessary reductions in 2030 and beyond, while ensuring international cooperation and financial assistance, enabling domestic actions and promoting implementation.
Download the report
Briefing
High Steaks: Taking methane from animal farming out of its blindspot
October 2022
Methane emissions in the EU’s livestock sector are expected to drop by a mere 3.7% by 2030 with current policies, which means that the EU will not achieve its 30% commitments under the Global Methane Pledge. As our earlier study has shown the EU is on track to achieve only around 17% methane reductions by 2030. This briefing is the second in our ‘High Steaks’ series and was prepared with contributions from the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), which analyzed current and future EU policies that could impact on methane reductions in the EU by 2030 and move the needle in the right direction. IEEP looked at the policy measures in the EU Methane Strategy, such as Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR), Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), etc. The overall assessment demonstrates that there is a policy vacuum to tackle methane emissions from agriculture. While methane emissions in the energy sector are being addressed by a dedicated regulation proposed by the European Commission in December 2021, emissions in the agricultural sector are addressed only by a set of patchy measures spread across a wide range of policies. The documents released following the freedom of information request have also revealed that the EU has watered down some key pieces of legislation, notably the IED, following the interventions of the farm lobby. The report concludes that a specific EU-wide methane reduction target is needed and could be set through ESR to prioritise methane reductions across agriculture and waste sectors by 2030.
Download the report
Briefing
Stranded in a vicious cycle? The case for transformation in animal agriculture
July 2022
The production of meat and dairy is a significant source of carbon and methane emissions, but at the same time also uniquely dependant on stable climate conditions. Industry estimates that the production of red meat and dairy will grow by more than 50% by 2050. However, this is at odds with climate science, which predicts significant disruptions to the sector, estimating 7-10% decline already at 2 degree temperature increase. The alarming effects of climate change caused disruptions are already felt by the farmers around the world. With the world currently on the trajectory of 3 degree warming, this is set to get much worse.
In this briefing, we present a survey of over 200 respondents from the investor community which showed that over 80% are concerned that climate change represents a material risk to meat and dairy industry-related investments, and over 80% said that a lack of mitigation of climate change could lead to stranded assets in this industry. At the same time, more than half of respondents (55%) think that investors are not sufficiently addressing these risks. The survey also shows that investors say more emphasis should be put on mitigation of methane emissions with 94% saying that reducing methane emissions alongside carbon emissions is important. 83% said that investors should encourage companies to reduce their methane emissions. The report ends with recommendations for investors to engage with the meat and dairy industry and ensure that it begins its transformation by radically reducing its carbon and methane emissions.
Download the report
Investor Briefing
High Steaks: How focusing on agriculture can ensure the EU meets its methane-reduction goals
June 2022
The agricultural sector is the largest source of methane emissions in the EU, responsible for 8 Mt of methane per year or 53% of EU’s overall methane emissions. This is equivalent to the total emissions from 50 coal-fired power plants, according to conservative calculations. Yet, the EU has very few policies to deal with emissions from its meat and dairy industries. For this reason, the Changing Markets Foundation commissioned research to the independent consultancy CE Delft to calculate methane reduction potential of different measures across the agriculture, energy and waste sectors. The report shows that the EU is currently on track for around 17% methane reductions by 2030, which falls short to the 30% target it has committed to by signing the Global Methane Pledge. It is also significantly less than what the science says is needed. However, there is a lot of potential. Through a combination of measures in agriculture, the EU could cut its methane emissions by up to 36%. The biggest potential comes from policies that would drive the uptake of healthier diets, as recommended by national dietary health guidelines. According to this Europeans should cut their red meat consumption by half and reduce their dairy consumption by a quarter. The study also investigates measures available in other sectors and concludes that the maximum reduction from all available measures could be up to 68%. Our briefing, supported by 6 NGOs, ends with policy recommendations for the European Commission and governments to realise potential of methane reductions in agriculture.
Download the report
Policy briefing (English)
Policy briefing (Spanish)
Full study (CE Delft)
Methane Matters: A comprehensive approach to methane mitigation
March 2022
In November 2021, more than 110 countries committed to the ‘Global Methane Pledge’, an initiative launched at the UN Climate Conference (COP26) in Glasgow. The Pledge has the collective goal of reducing global methane emissions by 30% by 2030, compared with a 2020 baseline. This report, published in partnership with Environment Investigation Agency (EIA) and Global Alliance for Incineration Alternatives (GAIA), looks across the three main sectors of anthropogenic methane emissions: agriculture, energy and waste, and outlines policy measures that governments must adopt to maximize methane reductions. Because methane is a very potent but a short-lived gas, rapid and deep reductions in methane emissions represent a key opportunity to slow the rate of global warming and increase humanity’s chances to stay below 1.5-degree temperature increase. According to the UN Environment Program’s Global Methane Assessment (GMA), methane emissions should be reduced by at least 45% in this critical decade of climate action. With 2030 only a few years away, this report provides recommendations for governments on immediate actions that can be taken in national action plans, identifying specific measures and policies to cut methane across sectors. In parallel, the report calls on governments to enhance global governance on methane to enable and support national action on methane, with provisions on monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV), financial and technical assistance.
Download the report
English
Spanish
Blindspot: How lack of action on livestock methane undermines climate targets
October 2021
The livestock agricultural sector is the single largest contributor to man-made methane emissions. Enteric fermentation in stomachs of ruminants, such as cows and goats, and manure management is responsible for 32% of this potent greenhouse gas, which is 86-times stronger than CO2 over 20 years. Scientists have warned that rapid reductions of methane emissions are needed to slow the rate of global heating and avoid dangerous climate tipping points. For this reason, we have investigated the policies and actions of some of the biggest meat and dairy producing countries and companies to reduce their methane emissions. Our analysis shows that all of the 20 meat and dairy giants scored poorly, which indicates that the largest corporate methane emitters are oblivious to the problem and their responsibility to address it. Only seven of the 20 companies have science-based targets for their overall GHG emissions, but none of them report methane emissions separately or have any targets or action plans to reduce them. Although over half of the companies invest in methane abatement measures, they do not disclose how much these investments are. We have also discovered that none of the 18 countries with the biggest livestock industries has effective policies in place to reduce methane emissions. Although most of these countries report their livestock methane emissions, these have been remained stable or have even increased in half of the countries analysed over the last five reported years. The report calls for rapid policy action to address this problem. In particular, countries where the average consumption of meat and dairy is above recommended intake should develop national action plans with binding policies for consumption reduction. These should focus on a shift to a diet containing less and better meat and dairy, with the promotion of alternative protein and a shift to better food production systems. On the industry side, there should be specific regulations requiring companies to set science-based targets to cut their carbon and methane emissions, both by using technical measures and by reducing livestock production.
Download the report
EnglishEnglish (Executive summary)Spanish (Executive summary)French (Executive summary)German (Executive summary)
Growing the Good: The Case For Low-Carbon Transition in the Food Sector
October 2018
This report looked at the climate, environmental and health impacts of overconsumption of meat and animal products, current market trends and public policies in this area. It found that the number of vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians is growing rapidly, particularly among the younger generations, a trend which is being reflected in a buoyant market for plant-based products and a wide array of companies manufacturing innovative meat alternatives. However, the report also found that there is a complete lack of public policies supporting these positive consumer and market shifts, which are needed to ensure the food sector is part of the solution to climate change. This stands in stark contrast with significant array of measures supporting a low-carbon transition in sectors such as energy and transport. Shockingly, instead of supporting such societal trends, politicians are succumbing to pressure from meat producers by introducing new legislative measures aiming to restrict market growth for alternatives, such as the recent French ban on terms like ‘vegan burger’, and continuing to support unsustainable agricultural production systems dominated by intensive meat and dairy farmers and producers. The report offers a number of recommendations for policy makers around the world to support such transition, including putting in place ambitious climate targets that drive emission reductions in animal agriculture in line with Paris agreement; introducing fiscal policies to reduce meat demand and consumption; implementing dietary guidelines that encourage a shift to healthier diets including the reduction of animal products; shifting subsidies away from polluting intensive animal farms and addressing negative externalities of animal agriculture; incentivising the production of diverse and underused protein crops, such as pulses, for human consumption; and funding more research and development of plant-based and other meat alternatives, such as clean meat.
Download the report
English
