Danone announces an ambitious plan to reduce its methane emissions
Press Release – Paris, January 17th, 2023
Danone announces an ambitious plan to
reduce its methane emissions
- Danone targets a 30% absolute reduction in methane
emissions from fresh milk used in its dairy products, the first
food company to align targets with the Global Methane
Pledge
- To accelerate its efforts, Danone launches a new
partnership with Environmental Defense Fund
Danone, a leading food company and one of the
world’s largest dairy companies, announces today a global action
plan to reduce absolute methane emissions from its fresh milk
supply chain by 30% by 20301. Danone expects to remove 1.2 million
tons carbon dioxide equivalent of methane emissions by 2030. This
ambitious plan builds on the progress Danone has been making in
recent years, already reducing its methane emissions by c. 14%
between 2018 to 2020.
A reduction in methane emissions will have
immediate benefits for the climate that reductions in carbon
dioxide cannot achieve on their own, according to the IPCC2. Dairy
production from cattle makes up an estimated 8% of total
human-caused methane emissions, as part of agriculture and
livestock activities which represent approximately 40% of global
methane emissions.
As a leader of the dairy category, Danone is
determined to play its role to reduce methane emissions, focusing
on:
- working with farmers to implement regenerative dairy practices
and develop innovative solutions;
- collaborating and partnering with peers, governments and
Environmental Defense Fund to scale innovation, reporting and
advance financing models;
- advocating and engaging with governments to improve methane
policies, data and reporting as well as funding for research and to
support farmers transitioning to regenerative dairy practices.
With today’s announcement, Danone is the first
food company to set a methane reduction target and align with the
ambition of the Global Methane Pledge launched at COP26. The
company will report on its methane emissions, as part of its extra
financial disclosure.
Antoine de Saint-Affrique, Chief
Executive Officer of Danone, said:
« Dairy products are an affordable source of
nutrition for many people, at the core of our mission to bring
health through food. As one of the largest dairy companies, we take
the challenge of both producing more [to feed a growing population]
and greatly reducing emissions and impact on climate.
Our ambitious plan to reduce methane emissions –
in line with Global Methane Pledges from 150 countries – is a
commitment to build regenerative dairy.
This step change requires a collective effort.
Working with farmers, partners and governments, we have the power
and duty to build farming models that benefit the climate and
society, taking a step forward to tackling global warming together.
»
Working with farmers to transition to
regenerative dairy
Danone works directly with 58,000 dairy farmers
across 20 countries and has already supported projects for dairy
farms in 14 countries, through its regenerative agriculture
program, initiatives such as Farming for Generations and with
Danone Ecosystem.
While these projects are holistic in nature,
with benefits on biodiversity, soil quality and reduction of the
use of chemicals in farming, reduction of GHG emissions - including
methane - has been a priority.
We will continue to accelerate our efforts
across geographies and across diverse farming systems, working
hand-in-hand with dairy farmer partners. In 2023, we will launch 4
new initiatives for methane reduction in Africa, Europe and the
United States.
Collaboration and
partnerships
Danone is launching a partnership with
Environmental Defense Fund, a global non-profit
environmental organization working in nearly 30 countries.
Environmental Defense Fund will work with Danone on:
- Improving science, data and reporting for agricultural methane
emissions to ensure climate benefits are real and durable.
- Advocating for action from the dairy industry and governments
to prioritize agricultural methane solutions.
- Advancing innovative financing models, such as co-funding
models between companies and governments, to deploy farmer-friendly
solutions, faster.
Fred Krupp, President of EDF,
commented:
“Cutting methane emissions is one of the fastest
and most effective ways to slow climate change. The dairy sector
can play an important role in driving these reductions while
boosting farmer livelihoods and increasing food security and
nutrition.
“Danone is the first food company raising this
type of ambition, but it can’t be the last. This is the decisive
decade for climate action. We invite other food companies, farmers
and policymakers to join us on a path toward 2030 climate
results.”
Danone is also a founding partner of Farming for
Generations (F4G), a global alliance which brings together
companies specializing in animal health and welfare, animal
nutrition, crop nutrition and science and artificial intelligence,
as well as NGOs like World Wildlife Fund for Nature, Compassion in
World Farming, and Wageningen University. F4G has developed a
practical toolbox of best-in-class solutions for dairy farmers,
including solutions for methane reduction. These include factsheets
and other resources dedicated to enteric emissions reduction, herd
optimization, and manure management.
Working with governments
Danone considers that policy is critical to
unlocking systemic solutions to support dairy farm transformation,
from supporting research and innovation, to co-financing, to
ambition-setting, to driving a level playing field.
Danone North America is working closely with the
U.S. Department of Agriculture to support farmers in reducing
methane emissions though a comprehensive regenerative strategy
where improved manure management strategies create methane
reductions and improve fertilizer use on cropland.
In Europe, Danone is supporting the European
Commission’s Climate Neutral Farms (ClieNFarm) project to
co-develop and upscale systemic locally relevant solutions to reach
climate neutral, resilient and sustainable farms across Europe.
Danone has also worked with the Algerian
government to support smallholder farmers to improve farming
practices, working with 1,500 farmers since 2015.
– Ends –
About Danone
(www.danone.com) Danone
is a leading global food and beverage company operating in three
health-focused, fast-growing and on-trend categories: Essential
Dairy & Plant-Based products, Waters and Specialized Nutrition.
With a long-standing mission of bringing health through food to as
many people as possible, Danone aims to inspire healthier and more
sustainable eating and drinking practices while committing to
achieve measurable nutritional, social, societal and environment
impact. Danone has defined its Renew strategy to restore growth,
competitiveness, and value creation for the long-term. With 100,000
employees, and products sold in over 120 markets, Danone generated
€24.2 billion in sales in 2021. Danone’s portfolio includes leading
international brands (Actimel, Activia, Alpro, Aptamil, Danette,
Danio, Danonino, evian, Nutricia, Nutrilon, Volvic, among others)
as well as strong local and regional brands (including Aqua,
Blédina, Bonafont, Cow & Gate, Mizone, Oikos and Silk). Listed
on Euronext Paris and present on the OTCQX market via an ADR
(American Depositary Receipt) program, Danone is a component stock
of leading sustainability indexes including the ones managed by
Vigeo Eiris and Sustainalytics, as well as the Ethibel
Sustainability Index, the MSCI ESG Indexes, the FTSE4Good Index
Series, Bloomberg Gender Equality Index, and the Access to
Nutrition Index. By 2025, Danone aims to become one of the first
multinational companies to obtain global B Corp™ certification.
About EDF (www.edf.org) One of
the world’s leading international nonprofit
organizations, Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org)
creates transformational solutions to the most serious
environmental problems. To do so, Environmental Defense Fund links
science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships.
With more than 3 million members and offices in the United States,
China, India, Mexico, Indonesia and the European Union,
Environmental Defense Fund’s scientists, economists, attorneys and
policy experts are working in 28 countries to turn solutions into
action.
About Global Methane PledgeAt
COP 26 in November 2021 in Glasgow, the United States and European
Union unveiled a Global Methane Pledge, seeking 30% reductions
globally by 2030 from 2020 levels of human-caused releases across
oil and gas as well as other major sectors such as livestock,
agriculture, coal mining, and waste. This could eliminate over
0.2˚C warming by 2050, preventing more than 8 gigatons of carbon
dioxide equivalent emissions from reaching the atmosphere annually
by 2030. This new framework secured 103 initial national pledges
(representing nearly 50% of global anthropogenic methane emissions
and over two thirds of global GDP), and today it has increased to
150 members. More information here:
https://www.globalmethanepledge.org
Notes to editors
- Methane emissions represent 25% of Danone’s full scope
emissions.
- Fresh milk represents approximately 70% of Danone’s methane
emissions. The remaining 30% is made up by indirect dairy
ingredients.
o o O o o
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains certain
forward-looking statements concerning Danone. In some cases, you
can identify these forward-looking statements by forward-looking
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“confident,” the negative or plural of these words and other
comparable terminology. Forward looking statements in this document
include, but are not limited to, predictions of future activities,
operations, direction, performance and results of Danone.
Although Danone believes its expectations are
based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements
are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause
actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these
forward-looking statements. For a detailed description of these
risks and uncertainties, please refer to the “Risk Factor” section
of Danone’s Universal Registration Document (the current version of
which is available at www.danone.com).
Subject to regulatory requirements, Danone does not undertake to
publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements.
This document does not constitute an offer to sell, or a
solicitation of an offer to buy Danone securities.
1 2020 baseline
2 The evidence is clear: the time for action is now. We can
halve emissions by 2030. — IPCC. The Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the
science related to climate change
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