New Methane Action Tracker puts agricultural methane emissions under the spotlight as COP30 opens

The new interactive tool developed by the Changing Markets Foundation is first to track agricultural methane emissions of both companies and countries.

London, Monday 10 November 2025 – As COP30 opens, the Changing Markets Foundation has unveiled the Methane Action Tracker, the first interactive platform to monitor and compare agricultural methane emissions across both companies and countries.

Using maps, scorecards, and rankings, the tracker brings to life data from research and reports on the agricultural sector’s role in driving climate change, allowing users to see which nations, corporations, and sectors are taking credible steps to cut emissions, and which ones are lagging.

As the first tool of its kind to show both agricultural methane emissions at the national level and the industrial or retail level, it incorporates three elements:

1. Country tracker: Providing a global snapshot of agricultural methane action by 16 high meat and dairy producing and consuming countries as well as the EU, including Brazil and the US. Although 82% of the featured countries are signatories to the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane by 30% by 2030, just six countries, and the EU, have reported small methane reductions.
2. Dairy and coffee company scorecard: 23 major dairy brands and coffeehouse chains – including Nestlé, Arla, Danone, Starbucks and Dunkin’– are scored on their methane emissions accounting and reporting, targets and action plans, as well as reported methane emission reductions. While Danone is a clear front-runner with a score of 62.5%, 11 companies scored less than a quarter points, including well-known brands, McCafe, Costa and Dairy Farmers of America.
3. Supermarket retailer ranking: 20 global food retailers – including Carrefour, Lidl, Tesco, and Ahold Delhaize – are ranked in terms of the importance placed on methane in their climate strategies; their emissions reporting; environmental commitments and action plans; food waste and landfill levels; and the availability of protein alternatives. Tesco is the only company to score above 50%, while 12 companies – including grocery giants Walmart, Leclerc and Mercadona – score under 25%.

Nusa Urbancic, CEO, Changing Markets said: “Our message is simple: methane matters. It’s both a super-heating gas harming our planet and our greatest opportunity to slow the climate crisis — if we act fast. Agriculture is the largest source of human-made methane emissions. But as our tracker shows the world’s biggest food companies and major meat- and dairy-producing countries are dragging their feet.

“We’re launching this tracker today to tell governments in Belém: no more time to waste. We need to see urgent action on methane, with mandatory targets — now”

Even if fossil fuel production stopped today, food-related emissions alone could push global warming beyond 1.5°C, with methane as a major driver. Animal agriculture produces roughly 32% of human-made methane globally, mostly from enteric fermentation (cow burps). Methane is 80-times more potent than CO₂ over 20 years, and the science is clear that it must be reduced by 40-45% by 2030 to keep the world on the 1.5°C trajectory (1).

The Methane Action Tracker is a ‘one-stop-shop’ on policies and actions being taken by some of the largest global food corporations and the biggest meat and dairy producing countries.  For country data Changing Markets analysed country-level NDCs and for national energy and climate plans for featured EU countries (2), and Climate and Clean Air Coalition roadmaps. None of the selected countries have policies in place that suggest they are on track to cut agricultural methane emissions in line with the Global Methane Pledge.

Changing Markets developed and updated methodology for dairy and coffee brand rankings, which now also includes reported methane reductions. Only four companies (Danone, Bel Group, Kraft Heinz and Nestlé) have reported any meaningful methane reductions. However, Nestlé also recently left the Dairy Methane Action Alliance (DMAA), putting the company’s commitment to methane mitigation under question (4). Not one of the 20 supermarkets featured in the first retailer ranking, jointly published with Mighty Earth, in March 2025 (3), globally report on their methane emissions or have emissions reductions targets. Since the launch of this report, Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn, part of the Ahold Delhaize group, has started reporting its methane emissions (5).

The tracker launches on the first day of COP30, hosted in Belém, Brazil, where world leaders are gathered to review progress on the implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement. The recent UN Emissions Gap report shows that the world is off track, with warming projections based on full implementation of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) as leading to 2.3-2.5°C, while those based on current policies are 2.8°C (6).

“With scientists raising the alarm that 1.5 is increasingly out of reach, action on methane is more important than ever” continued Urbancic. “Agriculture can no longer be treated as ‘exceptional’. As our research shows, big food companies and big meat and dairy producing countries have huge resources. These now need to be invested in supporting farmers to cut methane and promoting a shift to healthier diets globally.”

With the transformation of agriculture and food systems high on the COP30 agenda, Changing Markets’ recent report, unpacks the pervasive greenwashing and extensive lobbying conducted by the meat industry – as it seeks to position itself as part of the climate solution at the global summit (7).

Changing Markets is also co-hosting and speaking at COP30 events, with specific events highlighting the urgent need for tangible action to tackle agricultural methane, including an official side event on 15 November.

In launching the Methane Action Tracker, Changing Markets aims to bring greater transparency to the debate around agricultural methane emissions to ensure the meaningful targets will keep Paris Agreement’s targets. The tracker has been launched alongside a background briefing paper on the controversial metric GWP*, which industry is pushing in an attempt to weaken methane mitigation and be allowed to continue ‘business-as-usual’. (8)

ENDS

• Visit methaneactiontracker.org to see how we visualise the data, learn more about how companies and countries are doing, and see the full methodology behind it.
• See our advisory for an overview of Changing Markets spokespeople and events at COP30.

About Changing Markets | www.changingmarkets.org | @ChangingMarkets 

The Changing Markets Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to exposing irresponsible corporate practices and driving sustainable market change. Our campaigns focus on holding companies accountable for environmental impacts and accelerating the transition to sustainable business models.

Notes to Editors

(1) Climate and Clean Air Coalition (2021). Global Methane Assessment

(2) EU member states submit an NDC at the EU level meaning they do not complete individual NDCs, therefore we assessed national climate action plans.

(3) Changing Markets Foundation and Mighty Earth (2025).
Clean up on aisle 3: The methane mess supermarkets are hiding.

(4) Nestlé bows out of initiative to reduce dairy’s climate impact, Bloomberg, 8 October 2025.

(5) While this is a notable achievement, (for which a note has been added to the ranking), the commitment has only been made with Albert Heijn, a single supermarket, and not at the Ahold Delhaize group level, meaning it has not impacted on the group’s score.

(6) UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2025

(7) Changing Markets Foundation (2025). The Meat Agenda: Agricultural Exceptionalism and Greenwash in Brazil

(8) GWP* (global warming potential*) is also known as the ‘no additional warming’ approach to methane is a controversial metric which has the potential to allow countries to claim ‘climate neutrality’, or even ‘cooling’ by investing in small methane emissions reductions, while maintaining their vast livestock sectors. The strategy being pursued by the industry lobby risks fundamentally undermining the scientific credibility and ambition of global methane mitigation commitments at a critical moment for climate action.

For more see: Changing Markets Foundation (2025). The new faces of GWP* temperature neutrality and no additional warming.