Integrity of corporate net zero pledges: Analysis of major food and beverages companies

Food and beverage companies have a crucial role to play in cutting global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study analyses net-zero and interim emission reduction targets of the world’s 20 largest food and beverage companies by revenue, which collectively account for more than 1 GtCO2e of direct and indirect emissions annually in the context of recent developments in corporate climate integrity and target setting criteria.

17 of the 20 companies have a net zero target or its equivalent. By contrast, many companies lack short-term targets before 2030; they focus disproportionately on longer term, net-zero emission target-setting rather than on short- and medium-term targets, indicating that these companies are avoiding immediate actions to reduce emissions. Most of these short-term targets also did not cover Scope 3 emissions, which comprised 93% of the companies’ total GHG emissions. Most of the companies are also not explicit whether they intend to rely on carbon dioxide removal (CDR) within or outside their value chains to realise net-zero or interim targets, and very few companies specify to what extent. The effectiveness the nature-based solutions the companies describe for achieving their emission reduction targets is highly uncertain and carries risk of non-permanency and reversibility. Because of these reasons, we were not able to make robust estimates of companies’ targeted value chain emission reduction trajectories.

Overall, only a minority of the assessed companies have targets that are relatively in line with international corporate climate action integrity standards. There is a need for significant improvements in upstream emissions reporting, particularly under purchased goods and services and associated land-use change emissions. Strong improvements are also required in interim target setting in terms of frequency and enhanced transparency on scope and GHG coverage, as well as the use of offsets or insets in meeting climate targets.