Oatly calls for climate labelling on all food and drink sold in the UK

The campaign comes as Oatly claimed new research reveals UK consumers strongly support the idea of carbon labelling on food and drink, including:

• Most (62%) are in favour of a policy to introduce carbon labelling on food/drink products, and 55% think companies should be obliged to publish that information.
• Most consumers (59%) would reduce or stop entirely consumption of high carbon-footprint food and drink products, if provided with accurate emissions data.
• Young people (18-34) are particularly engaged: they are significantly more interested than other age groups in knowing the carbon footprint of their food and drink; more in agreement about the need for carbon labelling; and more likely to change their consumption habits.

Oatly has published a ‘Grey Paper’: Climate Labelling: Why Not?. This is aimed at making the case for mandatory climate labelling, focused on three core arguments.

It maintains the science is unequivocal: emissions from the food system, which currently equate to 35% of total UK greenhouse gas emissions, must come down and changes to consumer choice are vital.

It also finds consumers are already given similar information elsewhere – for example, emissions data when buying a car and energy Rating data when buying a TV or a fridge.

And it insists there is broad public support for mandatory carbon labelling on food and drink as a means to make more informed choices.

Oatly has publicly challenged the dairy industry to reveal its own climate numbers, so shoppers can make a truly like-for-like comparison.

Oatly has paid for high-profile advertising space4 and offered it to ‘Big Dairy’ for free, if they publish the full climate footprint of their products.