Just three dairy and coffee companies of a ranked 23 reported methane reductions for 2024 or 2025, with Danone leading the way.
That’s according to the latest report from The Changing Markets Foundation, whose rankings assess the methane performance of 23 dairy and coffee companies across Europe and North America.
According to the report, Danone tops the rankings with 75.5 points, followed closely by General Mills with 74.5 points, while Starbucks ranks third with 65 points.
Companies dragging heels
The Changing Markets Foundation claims that “the rest of the sector is still lagging”.
The report finds that 91% of companies recognise the link between livestock and climate change.
Despite this, only three of the companies ranked have published methane reduction targets for 2030 – Danone, General Mills and FrieslandCampina.
CEO at The Changing Markets Foundation Nusa Urbancic said: “Our rankings show that setting a science-based methane target is one of the most important levers to drive emissions reductions.
“Danone’s progress shows that targets focus minds when backed by regular reporting and accountability.
“Methane is a crucially important climate emergency brake, and we need other food companies to ramp up ambition.”
Danone is the only company aligned with the Global Methane Pledge target of reducing methane emissions by at least 30% below 2020 levels by 2030, the report said.
The French multinational food company are well ahead of schedule, having already nearly hit that 30% reduction.
Methane reductions
Only three of the ranked companies reported having reduced methane emissions in 2024 or 2025 – Danone, Le Groupe Bel, and Nestle.
The report said Nestle reported a 20.1% reduction in methane, but without explaining how this was achieved, while Le Groupe Bel reported a 23% reduction from its 2017 baseline.
According to The Changing Markets Foundation: “Methane is a super-pollutant, 80-times more potent than CO2 and is responsible for around a third of global heating since pre-industrial levels”.
Agriculture accounts for 42% of anthropogenic methane emissions, the report said.