Carbon emission from the retail industry are 11% above those published when the sector rolled out its flagship strategy to hit net zero, according to a new report.
Estimated UK retail emissions for 2024 were 331m tonnes of CO2 equivalent, from 298m tonnes in 2019, five years after the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) Climate Action Roadmap was launched, The Grocer reported.
Business leaders today (17 December) insisted that the number was largely due to improved data quality, which they claimed showed a more accurate picture of the sector’s environmental impact. They said it did not necessarily reflect a big rise in actual carbon emissions.
Despite this, the report said the strategy had led to mixed results, with the sector impaired by a lack of government action as well as limited progress on carbon reporting by the retail supply chain.
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The report also noted that progress on the strategy, which aimed to hit net zero by 2020, had been delayed by systemic challenges, including policy uncertainty, supply chain complexity, financial pressures and technological limitations.
It said 91% of retailers had established a GHG emissions baseline and publicly reported their emissions.
However, with over 93% of retail emissions falling outside direct control, substantive sector progress hinged on more joined-up retailer collaboration to influence global suppliers to take action, the report concluded.
It revealed that 30% of the biggest suppliers provided GHG emissions data while 70% or products lacked information for consumers regarding responsible sourcing.
When the roadmap launched in 2020, baseline emissions were forecast at 215 Mt CO2e, using 2017 Defra consumption-based data.
However, the BRC claimed that a more accurate and repeatable methodology used to recalculate 2019 and 2024 emissions had demonstrated an apparent 11% rise since the forecast.
The trade association said that the updated footprinting methodology was a significant step forward in terms of tracking UK retail emissions accurately.
Despite this, the report claimed that the increasing figure reinforced the need for retail businesses to boost collaboration across the value chain.
BRC CEO Helen Dickinson said: “In 2020, we launched the Climate Action Roadmap to set the ambition for UK retail to reach net zero by 2040.
“Five years on, we must use the takeaways from this report to drive the industry from collective ambition to a step change in collaborative action. The climate emergency is no longer tomorrow’s problem.”
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