"Brazilian Meat Giant JBS a Bigger Emitter Than Italy, Study Estimates", 25 April 2022

...Greenhouse gas emissions produced by JBS, the world’s largest meat processor, have surged more than 50 percent in the past five years as the company has acquired new poultry and livestock units – meaning it now has a larger climate footprint than Italy, according to a new study...

“It’s mind-blowing that JBS can continue to make climate claims to investors, even as the company massively increases its emissions,” said Shefali Sharma, Europe director for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), a nonprofit advocacy organisation, which calculated the estimates...

This increase came largely as a result of JBS acquiring competitors around the world. The number of cattle in JBS’s supply chain has increased by 54 percent since 2016...

The company told the Financial Times it denied the accuracy of the estimates, saying the study used “flawed methodology and grossly extrapolated data to make misleading claims.”

After publication, JBS told DeSmog the company was already working to disclose its emissions “in line with best practice international standards” and having an independent third party verify its net zero target, which it described as its “number one priority”...

Long under fire from campaign groups over evidence linking the company to deforestation in the Amazon, JBS became the first major player in the meat industry to pledge to slash its carbon emissions to net zero in March last year.

Gilberto Tomazoni, JBS chief executive, said at the time that the company had an opportunity to leverage its scale and influence to lead a “sustainable transformation” of agricultural markets...

JBS says that it is “committed to combating, discouraging and eliminating deforestation in the Amazon” and that it prohibits any cattle from deforested land from entering its supply chain...

JBS’s methane emissions have also caused concern amid a growing recognition that the gas exerts a much stronger short-term warming effect than carbon dioxide...

Renewed scrutiny of JBS’s contribution to climate change comes against a backdrop of growing concerns over greenwashing...