Summarised by Centrist
Nestlé has quit the Dairy Methane Action Alliance. The global group was launched in 2023 to cut emissions from dairy farming.
Members include Danone, Kraft Heinz, and Starbucks. Each had agreed to measure and disclose methane emissions and publish plans to reduce them.
Nestlé gave no reason for leaving. The company said it will still work to lower greenhouse gases, including methane, and remains committed to net zero by 2050. It claims to have already reduced methane by 21 percent since 2018.
Other companies and banks have also pulled out of environmental alliances as the US winds back climate policies.
The Environmental Defense Fund claims farming produces about 40 percent of human-caused methane, mostly from livestock. The group founded the alliance in 2023.
Nestlé’s logo has now been removed from the EDF website. The fund has not commented on the move.
Editor’s note: New Zealand’s dairy giant Fonterra is not a member of the Dairy Methane Action Alliance. Still, it is commercially linked to several of the group’s key members through long-standing ingredient contracts and joint ventures. New Zealand has spent years tracking and regulating dairy emissions. However, with major global players like Nestlé now exiting the Dairy Methane Action Alliance, how relevant are New Zealand’s costly methane-reduction programmes, and are we investing in targets the rest of the world is quietly abandoning?
