Investors Urged to Intervene in EU Meat Lobby
Meat and dairy companies are mimicking fossil fuel sector tactics to stall Europe’s climate policy, putting its emissions targets at risk, InfluenceMap finds.
Climate-conscious asset owners should ramp up their engagement with Europe’s food producers, after new research revealed the meat and dairy sector had lobbied successfully against a raft of EU climate policies, according to the think tank behind the study.
InfluenceMap, a non-profit that monitors climate lobbying activities, found meat and dairy industry associations were successful in stalling or watering down five key EU climate policies affecting agriculture over the past three years.
These included the European Commission’s Sustainable Food Systems Framework – a flagship policy of the Farm to Fork Strategy – and Industrial Emissions Directive.
Europe’s peak agricultural lobby group Copa-Cogeca, the European Dairy Association, and European Livestock Voice were among the industry associations leading this push, through a mixture of direct lobbying of lawmakers and broader efforts to reframe narratives.
These tactics “tracked very closely” to those used by lobbyists from the fossil fuel sector, report author and Programme Director Venetia Roxburgh told ESG Investor.
“The fossil fuel industry attempts to reframe the link between oil and gas and climate change,” she said. “Similarly, the meat and dairy sector are attempting to reframe the link between meat and dairy and climate change, and make sure they see them as essential for society.”
Roxburgh said InfluenceMap will now drill down into the companies behind the industry associations and use that information to help investors engage with those companies.
By targeting the farming and land use sectors, Roxburgh said investors could broaden their focus beyond energy and heavy industry.
“The aim is to help get investors talking to the companies to try and get them to improve their climate policy engagement,” she added.
Anti-green push
Agriculture is responsible for 10% of the EU’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, predominantly from methane released during the digestive process of cows and sheep, and from poultry and pig waste, as well as nitrous oxide emissions from nitrogen fertiliser.
But the sector is not subject to the same strict controls as those imposed on power, heavy industry and transport through policies like the EU Emissions Trading System and fuel efficiency standards. Attempts to tackle the agricultural sector’s environmental impact faltered this year as farmers across the bloc protested against the European Green Deal.
While groups like Climate Action 100+ have demanded big emitters in energy and heavy industry reduce emissions and address climate risk, they have focused less on agriculture and land use sectors, Roxburgh said.
Targeting agriculture is trickier for big investors, as the sector is often not controlled by publicly-traded companies. For example, Cargill, the world’s biggest agricultural commodities company, is privately held, as is milk company Lactalis; while dairy giants Arla Foods Group and Fonterra are cooperatives.
Publicly-traded companies are more common in downstream food processing, with examples including Nestlé, Unilever and Danone. InfluenceMap found these companies were more likely to support EU policies to reduce agricultural emissions and shift to plant-based diets.
Of the ten companies InfluenceMap examined in this study, only the three named above were publicly traded. The remaining seven companies, all of which were upstream agriculture, meat or dairy groups, were either privately-held or cooperatives. They were: Arla, Cargill, FrieslandCampina, Danish Crown, Lactalis, Vion Food Group, and Tönnies Group.
Still, the sector does include publicly-traded companies, and big investors may also target agriculture through other asset classes such as private equity and private debt, for which the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) last week released new investor guidelines.
ESG Investor asked two leading investor groups – the IIGCC and FAIRR – if they had engaged or were planning to engage the agricultural sector on climate policy lobbying. Both declined to comment, but an IIGCC spokesperson said the group recently reclassified agriculture, forestry and fisheries as ‘high impact’ in its net zero investments framework, putting those sectors into the same class as oil & gas and mining.
What the research found
The research examined six key policies: the Farm to Fork Strategy; the Sustainable Food Systems Framework; a review of the EU Farm and Food Products Promotion Policy; a review of the EU School Fruit, Vegetables and Milk Scheme; the Industrial Emissions Directive Review; and the Methane Strategy.
It then examined lobbying of the ten food companies listed above – including three food processors, three dairy companies and four meat companies – and five pan-European industry associations. The latter included FoodDrinkEurope, the European Livestock and Meat Trades Union, the European Dairy Association, Copa-Cogeca, and European Livestock Voice.
Of the industry associations, Copa-Cogeca was found to be the most active lobbyist, followed by the European Dairy Association. European Livestock Voice’s lobbying was the least aligned with science-based policy.
Of the companies, only Unilever was found most aligned to the goals of the Paris Agreement, while meat producer Tönnies Group scored lowest.
Of six policies InfluenceMap examined, it found only the EU Methane Strategy was not stalled or weakened as a result of lobbying.
The study identified four ways in which meat and dairy groups had attempted to distance livestock from being viewed as a driver of climate change: emphasising the positive impacts of agriculture; downplaying the impact of emissions; emphasising efficiency gains; and denying the need to transition diets. They had also emphasised the social benefits of the meat and dairy sector.
Among the main European parties, the study found the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), which has the most members in European Parliament and is the party of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, was most susceptible to the sector’s lobbying. InfluenceMap found the EPP “frequently mirror the points made by industry associations”. The centrist Renew Europe and the centre-left Social Democrats were less influenced by the sector.
Roxburgh said “obstructive behaviour from the industry, and the infiltration of industry narratives in the European Parliament and EC” had endangered the EU’s emissions goals. “Without science-based policies tackling the sector, it does not seem likely that European agricultural GHG emissions will reduce in line with 1.5°C,” she said in a statement.
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