The world’s largest food and agriculture companies – including Mars, Nestlé, Danone and PepsiCo – are “overstating their climate progress” by relying on “weak” fixes instead of addressing the root causes of their impact, a new report has claimed.
Recent analysis from NewClimate Institute and Carbon Market Watch found that fmcg multinationals were using tools like carbon removal schemes and “weak certifications” to improve their carbon performance “while failing to cut methane, fertiliser, and deforestation emissions at source”.
The Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2025 – which looks at companies’ greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and how they’re progressing against them – also found that none of the companies assessed had committed to reducing livestock production, despite it being the sector’s largest emissions source.
Fertiliser emissions, responsible for roughly 25% of agricultural greenhouse gases, were “largely ignored”, researchers found.
And companies took advantage of “loopholes” in international standards schemes like the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi), which allowed them to blend supply chain CO2 removals with reductions in a single figure, “masking a lack of real mitigation”.
The report comes on the heels of a recent whistleblower memo by a group of industry executives, which claimed the agrifood sector was heading for an economic disaster bigger than the pandemic, with companies’ resilience planning based on “wishful thinking” and “false reassurances” to investors.
Read more: Why the food industry’s climate whistleblowers had to speak out
The Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor’s company-specific findings showed that Nestlé “could rely on land-based removals for up to 80% of its 2030 target”, which could “create a misleading impression of progress”, and that PepsiCo lacked targets for methane or food waste reduction.
The company’s virgin plastic use was also on the rise, the report pointed out, even though packaging accounts for 25% of its total emissions.
Mars had “no plan to shift away from animal-based protein” and was also set to use carbon removals in future climate targets.
Danone was the only company with a methane reduction target – 30% from fresh milk by 2030 – as well as plans to grow its plant-based portfolio.
Meanwhile, the world’s largest meat producer, JBS, had “no valid emissions reduction target” and continued to expand its high-emissions operations while “omitting deforestation emissions from its disclosures”, according to the research.
Nestlé said it “disagreed with the conclusions of the report” which “do not reflect [its] progress and commitment to achieve its net zero commitments”.
“We are reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, as part of our net zero roadmap, which has SBTi-validated targets”, a spokesperson told The Grocer. “Rather than setting targets for individual gases, we are focused on reducing our absolute GHG emissions by 50% by 2030.
“This includes reducing methane from dairy and livestock. We have reduced our methane emissions by 20.6% versus 2018.
“Our progress is clear: we have reduced GHG emissions by 20.4% versus 2018, one year ahead of our target, and we have sourced 21.3% of our key ingredients from farmers adopting regenerative agriculture practices, one year ahead of our target as well.”
Read more: How sustainability efforts in the food industry are going up in flames
The fmcg giant also argued it focused on different measures to help reduce its emissions including working closely with farmers “on more than 100 climate projects worldwide to reduce and remove GHG emissions and support regenerative agriculture on dairy farms”.
Additionally, “93.5% of our primary supply chain was assessed as deforestation-free for coffee, cocoa, meat, palm oil, pulp and paper, soy and sugar”, Nestlé said.
A Danone spokesperson said the company was ”fully committed to reducing its GHG emissions across its full value chain, with ambitious 2030 reduction targets and 2050 Net Zero targets aligned with 1.5°C pathway on scopes 1, 2 and 3, that have been validated by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi)”.
”Although we see value in helping farming partners transition to regenerative agriculture practices, these targets do not include soil carbon removals.
”In 2024, we made steady progress on the eight strategic programs of our Climate Transition Plan, which are currently on track to achieve their near-term objectives.
“We will continue to operate in a transparent way as we move ahead with our plans to cut emissions and achieve a traceable, verified deforestation- and conversion-free value chain on our key direct commodities by 2025.”
The Grocer reached out to all other companies mentioned in the report for comment.
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