A new report by the trade body, the British Retail Consortium, and consultants OC&C Strategy, shows reducing animal use is essential for cutting carbon emissions.

The report, which looked at consumer actions and perceptions, found that over 70% of people were unaware of what the main contributors to climate change were. This has meant that many consumers are focusing their efforts on activities which have only minimal impact on their overall carbon footprint.

The report found that reducing consumption of animal products – including meat, eggs and dairy – on a regular basis, could lower each individual’s carbon emissions by around 1.6 tonnes per year, 13% of an individual’s total annual emissions. Reducing overall meat consumption would reduce annual emissions by 0.9 tonnes per person (7% total), and cutting just red meat would reduce emissions by 0.5 tonnes (4% of total). The average carbon footprint of UK citizens is 12.7 tonnes of CO₂ per year.

Other effective actions were recycling at home (0.7 tonnes), reducing volumes of groceries (0.3 tonnes) and reducing household food waste (0.3 tonnes).

However, there was a mismatch between the most popular and most effective actions. While 59% of consumers said they often chose products with less packaging, only 28% were reducing their consumption of animal products, despite this having an eightfold larger effect.

There remain many challenges to changing consumer behaviour. However, according to the report, “Financial incentives and discounts were the most effective method to regularly get consumers to act more sustainably across all the actions”.

The report was published as part of the Climate Action Roadmap, which aims to ensure the retail industry and its supply chains are Net Zero by 2040 in order to play its part in limiting global temperature rise to 1.5^oC above pre-industrial levels. Changes in consumer behaviour which reduce carbon emissions will be a vital part of achieving this goal.

In 2017, the full lifecycle of the sector’s sold goods had a footprint of around 215 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent. This makes retail one of the largest contributors to UK greenhouse gases, with goods sold to consumers accounting for over 30% of all household emissions.

Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the BRC, said:

“Customers need help to make more sustainable choices – from what we buy, to the way we use it, to how we dispose of it. The BRC Climate Action Roadmap is supporting the retail industry reach Net Zero by 2040, but this will take a joint effort by consumers, retailers and government. Reducing meat consumption, improving recycling and giving pre owned products new leases of life, are all essential to limiting the devastating impact of climate change now and in the future and to creating more resilient and sustainable retail businesses.”

Matt Wills, Associate Partner at OC&C Strategy said: 

“The retail industry will need to drive real behavioural change in consumers if it is to successfully reach its net zero target. To achieve this the industry will need to take significant steps to both educate consumers around which actions will truly make a difference, and incentivise consumers to make more sustainable choices in these areas that will have the greatest impact in reducing their carbon footprint.”