Wednesday 9th December – Dairy UK has expressed ‘disappointment’ with the Climate Change Committee’s recommendations for dairy consumption within the Sixth Carbon Budget, published earlier today.
Chief Executive of Dairy UK Dr Judith Bryans said:
“We are strongly committed to tackling climate change and recognise the important work the Climate Change Committee is doing to this end. However, we are once again extremely disappointed that the role of dairy in nutrition, livelihoods, biodiversity and many more areas has been ignored. Dairy simply cannot only be viewed through the lens of greenhouse gas emissions or land use.
“Dairy products provide vital nutrition to consumers, such rich nutrition in fact that no one other product naturally matches the range of vitamins and minerals found in dairy. Encouraging or enforcing a reduction in dairy consumption could leave many consumers struggling to replace the valuable package of nutrients they get from dairy and paying higher food bills in the process.
“We surely do not want to see British consumers moving away from naturally nutrient rich and affordable foods towards taking supplements or to highly fortified and processed foods, and all without understanding fully the unintended consequences of such drastic dietary change.
“Through the Dairy Roadmap the dairy sector has for over a decade demonstrated its commitment to continuous environmental improvement, and its ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is no different. The UK dairy industry is one of the most sustainable in the world, accounting for only 2.8% of greenhouse gas emissions. We of course recognise that we as an industry have an impact, and over the last ten years we’ve worked hard to achieve a reduction of 24% in greenhouse gas emissions.
“Together, the UK dairy sector is coming together to determine the role the dairy can plan in delivering Net Zero whilst continuing to deliver benefits to health, livelihoods and communities across the UK.”
