After frantic climate negotiations in Baku, Azerbaijan last year, meaningful commitments to reduce agricultural methane were absent from the COP29 deal.
This is not surprising. The agriculture industry knows how to organise itself. With over 200 delegates out in force at Baku, it’s no wonder policy decisions have served this industry particularly well.
With low expectations for COP29, many environmental groups have had one eye fixed on next year’s COP30 in Belém, Brazil. But with Brazil ranking the third-largest cattle producer and second-largest beef exporter in the world, it’s likely the meat and dairy industry are also watching with an eagle eye.
Given Brazil’s status as a major beef exporter, agricultural methane should be a core focus in Belém’s negotiations and upcoming national climate plans. At COP29, waste was the only sector that received considerable focus on methane, including a new drive to reduce these emissions from landfill.
We need to bring the same focus to one of the world’s largest sources of man-made methane emissions: the Big Meat and Dairy industry.
Big Meat and Dairy
While fossil fuel companies have been scrutinised for their contributions to the climate crisis, the meat and dairy industry’s emissions have been left to operate under the radar.
Back in 2022, we at the Changing Markets Foundation, alongside the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), calculated for the first time the methane emissions of 15 of the largest meat and dairy companies.
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While industry drags its heels on adequate voluntary targets, it’s up to governments to set mandatory requirements for agricultural methane emissions reductions, to bring these highly polluting companies in line.
This report showed their combined methane emissions equated to over 80 per cent of the European Union’s entire methane footprint. What’s more, when we compared these 15 companies’ greenhouse gas emissions to oil giants, their combined emissions exceeded the individual footprints of the largest firms.
This year, we examined the policy landscape in the 11 countries where 22 of the largest meat and dairy companies are headquartered, which includes Brazil.
Our findings revealed that these countries lacked mandatory requirements for agricultural methane emissions reductions, cuts in livestock production, or the industry’s inclusion in any form of emissions pricing scheme - despite nearly all signing the Global Methane Pledge.
Instead, the landscape is dominated by a focus on technical solutions - such as methane-reducing vaccines for cows - which, alone, will fail to achieve the significant emissions reductions required by 2030.
What’s more, the Big Meat and Dairy companies have little to back their environmental commitments up. Among the 22 companies we analysed, 15 have made voluntary net zero pledges, but only three align with the Science-Based Targets Initiative’s target for reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
While there is a lot of talk around industry commitments and voluntary initiatives, agriculture is being given a free pass. The worst part is: no one is holding these companies to account.
That should be the priority between now and COP30 in Belém next November.
The COP30 host itself, Brazil, brought the highest number of agriculture lobbyists of any country to COP29, including more than 20 representatives from the largest meat companies.
While industry drags its heels on adequate voluntary targets, it’s up to governments to set mandatory requirements for agricultural methane emissions reductions, to bring these highly polluting companies in line.
The science couldn’t be clearer: to keep the 1.5°C limit alive we must rapidly address and reduce all forms of greenhouse gas emissions, methane included. We must call out the major sources of methane, and the continuous pollution by global companies.
Until this happens, our attempts to reduce methane emissions will not work. It’s time to demand a level of responsibility and accountability from Big Meat and Dairy.
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