Evaluating the landscape of greenhouse gas emissions and climate mitigation goals in the food and beverage sector

Link To Share This Poster: https://cdmcd.co/E3vGn4

Megan Reavis, Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, Joe Rudek and Jenny Ahlen, Environmental Defense Fund, Kusum Naithani, University of Arkansas

Background/Question/Methods
The dramatic increase of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted into the atmosphere by humans over the past century and a half has created an urgency for monitoring, reporting and verifying GHG emissions as a first step towards mitigating the effects of climate change. A large portion of the GHG emissions come from food production and processing, and several companies in the food and beverage industry are starting to set climate goals. We evaluated the GHG emissions reporting practices of the top 100 (ranked by Food Engineering) global food and beverage companies. Of the companies setting goals, we looked at the quality of those goals and determined whether or not such goals are aligned with the science of reducing climate warming to less than 2 °C.
Results/Conclusions
We found that two thirds of the top 100 global food and beverage companies are setting some sort of climate goals, and less than half included scope 3 emission goals. Of those setting goals we could evaluate, only 22% have goals that are aligned with the goal of the 3% Solution: a 4.2% annual reduction until 2050. While an increasing number of companies are disclosing scope 3 emissions and setting targets that include scope 3, a large number still do not disclose or report their emissions. Our results highlight an urgent need for collaboration between scientists, industry, and policy makers to develop protocols for monitoring, reporting, and verifying GHG emissions, to provide transparent information on climate goals and targets, to implement new policies that provide support and ensure accountability to achieve these goals.