Nestle bows out of initiative to reduce dairy’s climate impact

[DUBAI] Less than two years ago, a group of the world’s biggest food companies, including Nestle, Danone and Kraft Heinz, announced a major alliance to cut methane emissions from their hundreds of thousands of dairy suppliers.

Last month, however, Nestle’s logo vanished from the initiative’s website. Officials at the Swiss food giant confirmed that they have withdrawn from the effort, known as the Dairy Methane Action Alliance.

The company declined to elaborate on its decision to pull out. “Nestle regularly reviews its memberships of external organisations,” said a company spokesperson in a written statement. “As part of this process, we have decided to discontinue our membership of the Dairy Methane Action Alliance.”

Nevertheless, Nestle officials praised the alliance’s efforts and said the company remains committed to slashing its dairy emissions as part of its overall effort to halve its climate pollution by 2030. 

It is unclear whether Nestle’s exit will shake the resolve of the alliance’s other members. Several participants – Danone, Starbucks, General Mills, Bel Group and Lactalis USA – told Bloomberg this week that they are sticking with the effort.

The big-name departure alarmed one environmental watchdog that has long pushed food companies to aggressively tackle methane emissions coming from their dairy and beef supplies.

“Nestle’s silent exit from (the alliance) is a troubling move at the time when scientists are telling us that cutting methane is our best shot to curb global heating,” said Nusa Urbancic, chief executive officer of the non-profit Changing Markets Foundation.

Methane traps about 80 times more heat than an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. But the potent gas stays in the atmosphere for only about 12 years, compared with centuries for CO2. That means even modest trims in methane would quickly lower its atmospheric levels and help warming to subside. 

That, however, is an incredibly daunting task.

Atmospheric concentrations of methane hovered for centuries at about 700 parts per billion (ppb). Its presence has nearly trebled to 1,935 ppb since the onset of the industrial revolution, thanks to oil and gas extraction, landfills and growing appetites for beef and dairy. One industry source estimates that dairy products alone account for about 8 per cent of methane from human activities. 

When the Dairy Methane Action Alliance launched at the United Nations climate conference in Dubai in December 2023, its members laid out a path to take on this challenge.

The companies pledged to measure and report methane emissions from their dairy products – and publish an action plan for addressing these pollutants – by the end of 2024. But the effort started slowly, and the deadline for these reports was pushed back a year. 

Nestle, meanwhile, sidestepped the alliance’s guidelines by reporting its overall methane emissions – which it said fell 21 per cent between 2018 and 2024 – without breaking out figures for its dairy supply.

Even after Nestle’s departure, the alliance has 10 companies, including newer arrivals such as Starbucks and Agropur, a large dairy cooperative in Canada. Thus far, seven members have disclosed their dairy-methane emissions, while four have published action plans.