Arla has come under fire from climate campaigners which claim the dairy giant has been selling consumers a “fairytale” and is not doing enough to hit its sustainability targets.

A new report published by the Changing Markets Foundation and Greenpeace Nordic accuse the dairy manufacturer of not taking “meaningful action” to reduce its emissions.

It claims the multinational dairy giant has failed to take the sufficient steps to mitigate its own emissions, and any sustainability schemes it has launched in recent years have not demonstrated the effectiveness, long-lasting impacts or do not tackle the root cause of emissions.

Among other accusations, the report – which today (11 January) has been delivered to Arla’s headquarters in Denmark – alleges that Arla has no reduction targets for material non-CO2 emissions, including methane.

This is despite its methane representing 43% of its total emission from its Arla farms, or an estimated 13.4 MtCO2e/yr, exceeding the total agricultural methane emissions reported for the Netherlands (11.4 MtCO2e/yr).

The report also names several active sustainability initiatives, such as feed additives and biogas, with the campaigners arguing that they are not the ‘silver bullet’ solution, as Arla’s efforts fall short of the schemes maximum emission reduction potential.

Other claims include Arla meeting just one UN net zero recommendation, and accusations of the business lobbying to stall dairy reform.

A spokesperson for Arla told Grocery Gazette: “We are taking the time to thoroughly review the report, however, we believe from some of the data we have seen, that there are multiple inaccuracies and it is not a true reflection of Arla’s science-based targets and commitment to producing more sustainable dairy.”

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Yet, Changing Markets Foundation senior campaigner Alma Castrejon-Davila said: “Arla has been selling us a fairytale for far too long and this report exposes the stark contradiction between Arla’s reputation as the poster child of dairy sustainability, and the reality of its failure to develop robust plans to reduce its emissions – particularly its methane emissions.

“As the world’s fifth largest dairy company, Arla has an opportunity to be a trailblazer in the sustainable transition of the dairy industry, but it instead chooses to greenwash its own activities, whilst actively employing resources to delay and derail the progress of the wider industry.”

She added that the group is now calling on Arla to set an “ambitious” methane target at a minimum 30% reduction by 2030 “and shift to less and better dairy, as well as more plant-based products”.

“Only by implementing these measures will the dairy giant be able to reduce its emissions at the pace and scale that are needed.”

Greenpeace Nordic also accused Arla of a hypocrisy around the dairy giant’s own work to accuse other companies of greenwashing.

Greenpeace Nordic campaigner Sandra Lamborn said: “Arla works hard to appear caring about our climate and environment, but their actions often tell a different story…. Arla is diligently using images of cows on green pastures in their marketing, yet they haven’t officially taken sides in the debate of protecting the unique, Swedish grazing law which is threatened of being scrapped by our government.”

“The overall conclusion from the report is that Arla cares more about looking good than actually doing good for the climate. If Arla had put as much resources into the actual climate work as it does into PR and lobbying, it would probably have had a good chance of achieving its own climate goals, but sadly they are not.”

In recent years, Arla has unveiled a raft of sustainable measures, including partnering with supermarkets Morrisons, Tesco and Aldi to trial the use of methane-reducing cattle feed in a bid to reduce emissions.