The world’s biggest retailers, including British giants Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda, are reportedly “failing to tackle the massive methane emissions” in their meat and dairy supply chains.
New analysis by campaign groups Changing Markets and Mighty Earth has found that, despite meat and dairy making up an estimated one third of global retailers’ total emissions, companies were still not acting on their methane gas emissions.
None of the top 20 food retailers in the world – including household names Ahold Delhaize, Carrefour, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Walmart – report on their methane emissions or have set methane emissions reduction targets, according to the new Methane Action Tracker, which measures progress against indicators such as emissions reporting, reduction action plans and alternative proteins.
The UK’s biggest supermarket, Tesco, led the ranking, which assessed grocers’ methane reductions connected to meat and dairy production – but it only scored 51/100, with overall performance poorer still for all those assessed.
US retailers “performed especially badly, displaying a stark lack of climate accountability and ambition”, the report claimed.
Retailers ‘ignoring the methane problem’
The authors called for greater urgency in driving down the retail sector’s methane emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement recommendations.
“Food retailers are ignoring the methane problem hidden in the meat and dairy aisles and risk losing consumer trust,” said Gemma Hoskins, global methane lead at Mighty Earth.
“Methane is a superheater greenhouse gas responsible for about a quarter of the heating the planet has already experienced. But it’s short-lived, so rapid cuts would be a win for climate and nature.”
She added: “Retailers are uniquely positioned to urgently drive down agricultural methane emissions in their supply chains.
“That starts with being honest about the impact of the products they sell and working harder and faster to reduce that impact.”
Changing Markets and Mighty Earth are calling for retailers to set a science-based target to reduce methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030, in line with the Global Methane Pledge, and publicly report their emissions annually.
Read more: Arla collaborates with retailers on methane-reducing feed trial
In its global food systems roadmap published at Cop 2023, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also called for methane emissions from the livestock sector to be reduced by 25% in 2030 when compared with 2020 levels.
This target aimed to keep global warming under control while also allowing for the farming sector to continue providing for a growing population.
The Methane Tracker also showed that only a handful of retailers acknowledged the role of livestock farming in methane emissions and climate change impacts in their sustainability reports. Asda, for instance, only cited food waste as a driver of methane emissions.
No real leaders
Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s recognised that “over one third of GHG emissions come from the food system”, but it failed to highlight meat and dairy production as the largest contributor to these food-related emissions, researchers pointed out.
“Methane emissions are a major blind spot of supermarkets”, said Maddy Haughton-Boakes, senior campaigner at the Changing Markets Foundation. “Our scorecard reveals a complete lack of action, with the most powerful players in the food supply chains completely ignoring their government’s commitments to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030. This must change urgently.”
It is estimated that greenhouse gas emissions generated along supply chains, also known as Scope 3 emissions, make up over 90% of European retailers’ emissions profiles, with meat and dairy driving almost half of those.
Read more: Dairy giants pledge to disclose methane emissions for first time
Sainsbury’s has been reporting its Scope 3 emissions for several years. Methane reduction is a key target of the supermarket’s ’Forest, Land and Agriculture’ Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), and it works with our agricultural suppliers on reduction roadmaps which incorporate methane reductions.
Sainsbury’s says it has made progress in this space, including the launch of a “reduced-carbon” Taste the Difference Aberdeen Angus beef range in 2023 which it claims has 25% reduced carbon compared to the industry average.
Haughton-Boakes added some retailers “acknowledge the problem and have taken small steps”, but that “none are treating it with the urgency it demands – there are no real leaders here”.
But supermarkets have argued that, in order to deliver progress on Scope 3 emissions - including methane - they require primary emission data from suppliers, which is still a challenge for many.
The BRC is also convening the industry in attempting to develop consistent methodology for measuring and reporting primary emission data, but efforts over the years to do so have largely faltered.
One of the other key indicators analysed in the Mighty Earth report is the transition to plant-based proteins, with the research claiming a 50% shift to plant proteins by six leading food retailers alone could save emissions equivalent to removing 25 million cars from roads in the EU.
Lidl and Ahold Delhaize recently made headlines for their commitments to significantly increase plant-based sales. Tesco has also pledged to grow this market segment.
And other food giants like Arla and M&S have been trialling ways to switch up cow feed to reduce their methane emissions.
However, campaigners highlighted that the majority of retailers did not have concrete plans to reduce methane from meat and dairy sources and instead increase ambitions for plant-based sales.
“Cutting methane this decade is our emergency brake on runaway global heating, yet retailers are barely pressing it”, Haughton-Boakes said. “The companies that dominate our food system must step up now and take real action to slash their methane emissions.”
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