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We know that keeping forests standing, along with keeping fossil fuels in the ground, offers Earth’s best hope for fighting catastrophic climate change. Yet everyday rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands are destroyed, burnt and replaced with row upon row of palm oil plantations. This destruction has propelled Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter of palm oil, into becoming the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions behind only China and the US.
So why are we still destroying the rainforests that are the key to securing a safe climate future?
We’re losing forests because companies like PepsiCo, Kraft, Heinz and ConAgra Foods buy cheap palm oil to use in their products without making sure that the palm oil they buy is not linked to rainforest destruction.
Today, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)
released a scorecard that ranks 30 companies on the basis of the commitments each has made, and the actions each has taken, to address the climate and forest impacts of the palm oil in their supply chains.
Ten of the 30 major companies ranked in the scorecard are companies we’ve dubbed the Snack Food 20. RAN chose these twenty corporations because they are globally significant snack food manufacturing companies that consume palm oil. These companies have the power to engage their global supply chains, driving a transformation of the way palm oil is produced and ending the destruction of rainforests.
This scorecard reveals that PepsiCo, Kraft, Heinz and ConAgra Foods are the 4 packaged food companies that have taken the least action to address the impact of their palm oil supply chain on the climate and forests we all rely on.
So while other companies in the palm oil sector are adopting ambitious responsible palm oil policies that, once implemented, will break the link between their products and rainforest destruction, these companies are refusing to clean up their supply chains.
With your help we will force the worst offenders to change the way they do business.
These companies invest millions of dollars to gain your trust. You have enormous influence. All you need to do is put your power into action and join the movement telling these companies to remove Conflict Palm Oil from their products.
Please join us and invite your friends and family to do the same as we take on these brands—and win.
We have the opportunity to right so many wrongs simply by speaking out and refusing to stand by brands that use Conflict Palm Oil. Protecting forests will not only help combat climate change, it will also secure the homes of the world’s last orangutans and the livelihoods of millions of people who depend on these forests for their survival.
The Union of Concerned Scientists puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet’s most pressing problems. The full scorecard can be found at www.ucsusa.org/palmoilscorecard.