Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Nestlé were all mentioned as being relatively more assertive in their policies and actions to tackle climate change, though they all still had a lot of room for improvement.
Oxfam singled out Kellogg and General Mills as two of the worst on climate and is calling on them to lead the sector towards more responsible policies and practices. Oxfam says they should disclose their agricultural emissions and biggest polluting suppliers, set targets to cut emissions from their supply chains, and speak out more to other industries and governments to address the climate crisis.
Oxfam’s investigation shows:
- All of the ‘Big 10’ recognize the need to reduce indirect agricultural emissions within their supply chains and seven of them annually measure and report on these emissions through the Carbon Disclosure Project – but not Kellogg, General Mills or Associated British Foods;
- Only Unilever and Coca-Cola commit to reduction targets that address emissions in their supply chains, but none of the ‘Big 10’ have committed to clear reduction targets specific to their agricultural emissions;
- None of the ‘Big 10’ require their suppliers to set targets to reduce emissions;
- All of the ‘Big 10’ have set targets to reduce emissions from their operations, but these are often not science-based and don’t reflect their full contribution to the problem.
- Several of the ‘Big 10’ companies have committed to ambitious timelines to end deforestation in their supply chains for palm oil, but only Mars and Nestlé extend these policies to other commodities that are drivers of deforestation and land use change;
- An Indonesian company that sells palm oil to Cargill, a supplier of Kellogg and General Mills and other food industry giants, is allegedly involved in burning forest land to produce palm oil and contributing to a massive forest fire that alone created greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the annual emissions from 10.3 million cars.
- With Unilever, Coca-Cola and Mars being the exceptions, the companies are not doing enough to publicly urge government and other businesses to do more to tackle climate change, including by challenging damaging or inadequate positions of trade associations that represent them.
“The food industry has a moral imperative and a business responsibility to dramatically step up its efforts to tackle climate change,” said Byanyima. “The ‘Big 10’ companies are failing to use their power responsibly and we will all suffer the consequences. Kellogg and General Mills in particular are not doing their part. These companies should be leading the fight to help stop climate change from making people hungry. It’s time for them to get off the sidelines.”
Check the following link to read/download the Full Report:
http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/policy/standing-sidelines
Source: Oxfam.
Notes:
Pepsico UK committed to reduce emissions from its agricultural supply chain by 50% in 5 years. If this commitment were replicated across the Big 10, their emissions would fall by approximately 80 million tons compared to business-as-usual by 2020.
