Brazil-based meat giant JBS Foods, the largest global producer of beef and poultry, revealed that it has retired its goal to achieve net zero emissions across its value chain by 2040, and replaced it with goals that no longer include Scope 3 emissions, which account for the vast majority of its greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint.
In a post accompanying the release of the company’s 2025 Sustainability Report, JBS’ Global Chief Sustainability Officer Jason Weller highlighted key challenges the company has encountered in implementing its supply chain climate goal, stating:
“The further we got into execution, the clearer it became that a Net Zero goal spanning hundreds of thousands of independent agricultural producers across tens of millions of hectares in dozens of countries — each with different practices, different baselines, and no standardized measurement infrastructure — is an immense challenge.”
The meat industry accounts for a significant proportion of global GHG emissions, and is among the most difficult sectors in which to address climate impact, with livestock producing massive amounts of methane emissions, and supply chains spread across farms and ranches globally. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, total emissions from global livestock represent 14.5% of all anthropogenic GHG emissions.
Weller said that JBS initially set its net zero goal “to signal urgency and collaboration across the food system,” adding that “what has changed is the level of discipline stakeholders expect from corporate sustainability goals. Customers, investors, regulators, and communities want goals that are measurable, comparable, and tied to clear action.”
JBS has faced significant scrutiny over its net zero goal in recent years. In 2024, New York’s Attorney General launched a suit against the company alleging that the company had made a series of misleading statements about its environmental impact, including its claim that it will achieve net zero GHG emissions by 2040. At the time, the New York AG argued that JBS set its goals before it had even calculated its emissions and that it ““had no way of knowing whether they could successfully reduce those emissions to net zero by 2040.” JBS settled the case in 2025 for $1.1 million.
Scope 3 accounts for more than 90% of JBS’ overall GHG emissions, according to the new report, with the vast majority deriving from the “purchased goods and services” category.
In his post, Weller said that JBS is “sharpening” its climate goals around its operations, “the portion of our footprint where we have the clearest responsibility and the strongest ability to drive measurable progress.” The company’s current goals include targets to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity by 30% by 2030 and by 70% by 2050, on a 2019 basis, and to reach 60% renewable electricity use globally by 2030.
