None of the world’s top 20 largest food retailers reports its methane emissions, or has a reduction target for the powerful greenhouse gas. However, most do recognise the impact methane emissions have on climate change.
“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, which along with Planet Tracker has assessed retailer commitments and targets in a new scorecard.
The Methane Action Tracker evaluated retailers against 18 indicators including emissions reporting, food waste and protein alternatives.
Only Tesco scraped past the halfway mark with a ‘top’ score of 51/100. The average score across all indicators amongst retailers was 20/100, indicating a “dismal lack of action and major room for improvement”, the NGOs said.
They are now calling for retailers to set a science-based target to reduce methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030 – which is in line with the Global Methane Pledge. The NGOs also called for the food retailers to publicly report these emissions annually.
The UN Environment Programme’s global methane assessment states that in order to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, methane emissions must fall by between 40 and 45% by 2030. “While the GWP [global warming potential] of methane over 100 years (GWP100) is 27.9, its GWP over 20 years (GWP20) is 81.2,” noted the Research Institute for Sustainability Helmholtz Centre Potsdam recently. “In other words: methane has an immense warming effect over a short period of time.”
This makes it an attractive target for reducing global heating quickly (with benefits too in terms of human health, air quality and terrestrial ecosystems). Hoskins said that halving EU consumption of pork and beef, and cutting milk consumption by 25%, could reduce agricultural methane emissions by between 29% and 27%, or 15% to 19% of the EU’s total emissions of the gas, for example.
Food-related methane is primarily released by enteric fermentation, a digestive process in ruminant animals such as cows and sheep, by manure management, and by the decomposition of food waste in landfill sites. For food retailers, methane accounts for a significant, but often overlooked, part of their Scope 3 emissions, Hoskins explained.
“Retailers are uniquely positioned to urgently drive down agricultural methane emissions in their supply chains,” she said. “That starts with being honest about the impact of the products they sell and working harder and faster to reduce that impact.”
Manufacturers are also in the firing line for their lack of transparency over methane. A report published by Changing Markets and Greenpeace Nordic last month accused Arla of greenwashing, drawing particular attention to the fact the dairy giant has no reduction targets for material non-CO2 emissions, including from methane. Danone is one of the few dairy or meat companies to have set a methane reduction target.
The major supermarkets analysed in the scorecard “wield significant power in the supply chain” and can put pressure on globally dominant meat producers, such as JBS, Tyson and Cargill, or dairy processors, such as Lactalis, Arla and Dairy Farmers of America, the NGOs said.
Only six of the retailers assessed currently report on their scope 3 emissions – which account for the lion’s share of their total greenhouse gas footprints. The report reads: “When it comes to food retailers, emissions reporting is inconsistent, and there is a large performance gap between European and US-based companies. This may reflect both stricter regulations and higher consumer expectations in Europe.”
Carrefour, Casino, Elo/Auchan, Schwarz Group, Aldi Süd, Migros, Tesco and Ahold Delhaize all report across scopes 1, 2 and 3, following the GHG protocol. For these food retailers, publishing methane calculations would be “a simple but transformative step towards significantly increasing transparency”.
One of the key indicators analysed in the report is the transition to plant-based proteins. However, only a handful of retailers have set measurable targets for increasing alternative protein sales. Tesco, Carrefour, Schwarz Group (Lidl), and Ahold Delhaize have made commitments to grow this market segment, whereas most other retailers globally scored zero points. Whilst retailers such as Casino, Costco, Kroger, and Migros reference plant-based products or diets as a way to reduce emissions, none of them have targets around increasing their sales of these products.
