Campaigners have urged the government to set supermarkets legally binding climate targets as part of the UK’s new food strategy, which is expected to be rolled out this month.
A report released last month by UK food systems charity Foodrise found that supermarkets are falling behind on their voluntary sustainability pledges.
It noted that no major UK supermarket has specifically targeted reducing meat and dairy sales, which account for around half of the sector’s emissions.
“Retailers argue that consumers vote with their feet, but they have a huge amount of power,” said Liam Lysaght, Foodrise’s public affairs and campaigns officer.
“What we see instead is a triangle of inaction: government, farmers and retailers all waiting for each other to move first.”
Foodrise has encouraged the government to include mandatory emissions reporting and support for farmers transitioning away from intensive animal agriculture as part of the forthcoming strategy.
Most major retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Waitrose, have signed the British Retail Consortium’s 2020 Climate Action Roadmap. It commits the sector to halving emissions by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2040, a decade earlier than the government’s target.
But, according to a January analysis by UK charity The Food Foundation, the sector is underperforming. Carbon emissions in the food industry fell just 17 per cent between 2008 and 2022, compared to 38 per cent across the economy as a whole.
The UK’s most recent food strategy, published in June 2022 under Boris Johnson’s government, was criticised by experts for failing to follow key recommendations, including reducing meat consumption.
Last December, a WWF report found that UK retailers were “a long way off achieving many of their climate and nature goals,” including reducing deforestation in their supply chains.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has assembled an advisory board to assist with developing the food strategy, which has held monthly meetings since March.
Over half of the board’s 13 members come from industry, including the CEO of Sainsbury’s and the Regional President of McCain Foods.
