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Climate gap report: food

Various items of food on table

Rob Harrison and Ruth Strange discuss the findings around food from Closing the Climate Gap 2024: An annual report on progress towards sustainable consumer lifestyles in the UK.

Actions taken this decade will be crucial in mitigating the worst impacts of climate breakdown. Yet, according to our Climate Gap research we are not cutting emissions fast enough across any of our key lifestyle areas - including in our diets.

Food and the climate gap

A key finding of our Climate Gap report was that it is a mixed picture when it comes to food consumption and food waste. 

Dietary changes have a huge potential for reducing greenhouse gases, not only those released during production, but also those that could be captured by land not used for production.

Although reducing food waste is important too, switching to plant-based diets would have much more impact (George Monbiot in Regenesis p.135, 2023).

It was therefore pleasing to see that the figures from DEFRA’s Family Food Dataset suggest a 10% reduction in meat consumption and 8% reduction in dairy consumption between 2020-21 and 2021-22 (however see Addendum below). 

Climate Gap 2024 Addendum around falling meat consumption (1st Nov)

Subsequent to the publication of our 2024 report we were contacted by a reader who was concerned that the 10% fall in meat consumption that we had observed this year may have been due to methodological changes in the research dataset rather than actual changes in consumption patterns.

The dataset we used (DEFRA's Family Food Survey) appears to be contradicted by other government and OECD sources which do not indicate the same decline. They have contacted DEFRA on our behalf and we are waiting for a response. We will also consider the information sources for this element of the 2025 report in light of what we are learning here.

Graph of food waste for different years - data in the report
Graph of food waste in million tonnes per year, with increase from 2018

Food waste increasing

Disappointingly, food waste figures are clearly going in the wrong direction.

Reduction in food waste could lower emissions by leading to reduction in excess food production, and reducing methane production from its decomposition.

In 2023, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) published its first updated household and supply chain food waste figures since 2018, and there had been an increase.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) 2024 Progress report stated “there has been insufficient progress on recycling and composting, and energy from waste emissions have substantially increased”, when there should instead be a managed reduction in waste going to energy-from-waste facilities.

Actions for government, companies and consumers

The Climate Gap 2024 Report summarises actions to be taken by government, companies and consumers in order to help meet the 2030 targets.

Food report card 2024
  Meat consumption Dairy consumption Food waste
Actions for government Use public procurement; rebalance agricultural policy; assess future trade deals; promote alternatives to meat. Use public procurement; rebalance agricultural policy; promote alternatives to dairy. Mandate reporting for companies; funding for food waste prevention.
Actions for companies Better carbon labelling; more plant-based options; more investment in alternatives; support the Climate and Ecology Bill. Better carbon labelling; more plant-based options; more investment in alternatives; support the Sustain alliance. Reduce supply chain waste; report on food waste annually; support Feedback's work on waste; support WRAP. 
Actions for consumers Reduce meat consumption; support the Climate and Ecology Bill; support the Sustain alliance. Reduce dairy consumption; consider joining the Vegan Society; consider supporting Animal Rising. Reduce food waste; support Feedback's work on waste; support Electoral Reform Society.

Access the 2024 report

A summary and PDF of the 2024 report and the other impact areas is available on our campaign page.

The reports include the evidence that sits behind all this information.

At a glance graphs

The 2024 report includes 12 graphs, like the food waste graph above, across the four impact areas of food, heating, transport and consumer goods. These graphs are quick ways to see where progress is taking place, and where the target is going to be very difficult to achieve.

Your feedback

After you have read this report, we’d really appreciate your feedback to help us understand the impact it is having, and improve this in future years.

Climate impact of meat and dairy

By far the biggest way that consumers can reduce the greenhouse gas and land impacts of their food is reducing their consumption of products from ruminant animals (cows, sheep and goats), due to their methane impact and the land impact of grazing.

Read more about the climate impact of different diets in our articles on

Handy advice on climate actions you can take

We are creating series of articles highlighting actions you can take for the climate on the areas of food, heating, transport and consumer goods - see the links below for some food related advice:

Join in

Combined efforts can have greater impact than people on their own. Key food campaigns to support include:

  • Sustain: an alliance of organisations working together for a better food system
  • Feedback: a charity campaigning for mandatory food waste (amongst other things)
  • Vegan Society: campaigns for more plant options and supports people to reduce dairy consumption
  • Animal Rising: non-violent protest action to speed the transition to a plant-based food system
  • WRAP:  works with businesses, individuals and communities to achieve a circular economy, by helping them
    reduce waste, develop sustainable products and use resources in an efficient way
  • Climate & Nature Bill: this bill aims to require the UK government to systematically address all consumption (and other) impacts according to the best available science.

We would like to express gratitude to Ecology Building Society for its sponsorship of the 2024 Climate Gap Report.

Ecology Building Society logo

What is the Climate Gap report?

Ethical Consumer's first Climate Gap report was published in October 2021, to track progress towards sustainable consumer lifestyles in the UK. The report helps identify how consumers, governments and companies can work together to help fix the climate crisis.

The report's aim is to track the gap between our current combined consumption emissions and where they need to be by 2030. A second key aim of the project is to produce a simplified list of key actions for consumers, companies and governments.

The report has four sections on the areas where our lifestyle climate impacts are the biggest: food, housing, transport and consumer goods, covering 75% of combined total consumer emissions. It compares where consumer behaviour is in these areas against 2030 targets from reports issued by the UK Government's own Climate Change Committee (CCC). Read more about whether the CCC's targets themselves are robust enough, in the Key Findings on our campaign page.

We update the report annually, to provide targets for consumers, companies and government each year.

Also of interest

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