A group of leading food businesses, including Bel Group, Danone, General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Lactalis USA and Nestlé, are teaming up to launch the Dairy Methane Action Alliance (DMAA), through which they will commit to report on and reduce methane emissions.
The initiative, which will predominantly focus on the dairy and livestock sector, was launched at COP28, which is taking place in Dubai this week.
Each member of the alliance, which collectively represent more than $200 billion in revenue, has pledged to annually account and publicly disclose methane emissions within their dairy supply chains, as well as create and implement a ‘comprehensive’ methane reduction strategy.
‘Transforming food production’
“Transforming how we produce food is essential to stabilising the climate. We also need to support farmers as they work to feed the world in the face of climate change,” said Fred Krupp, president, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which co-launched the initiative.
“Dairy companies can be part of the fight against climate change by reducing methane pollution. This is an exciting step forward in putting methane action front and centre for the dairy sector.”
Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, possesses 80 times the warming potency of carbon dioxide during the initial two decades after its release into the atmosphere. Agriculture contributes significantly to human-caused methane emissions, with nearly 40% attributed to this sector, primarily originating from livestock.
‘Collective action on methane today will avoid the worst impacts of a changing climate–and we’ll see the difference in our lifetimes,’ the EDF said in a statement. ‘These corporations have stepped forward to set a new standard for accountability, transparency, and ambitious climate action within the food industry.’
More targeted action needed
Nusa Urbancic, the CEO of Changing Markets, responded to the news by acknowledging the commitment made by the involved firms as a positive step. However, she emphasised the need for more specific and targeted actions.
“This must be quickly followed with clear targets for methane reductions and a plan to deliver on them if it is to have an impact,” she said. “Today’s big disappointment is the absence of dairy giants like Arla, Fonterra and Dairy Farmers of America which are opting out of action on their main source of emissions.”
Changing Markets had recently released a report titled Emissions Impossible: Methane Edition, revealing the methane emissions of various major firms, including Fonterra, whose emissions were noted to be equivalent to the entire livestock sector of Ireland.
