Oatly Says Climate Action Now |
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Oatly Says Climate Action Now
The world’s largest oat drink company is printing summaries of what it calls “the ultimate climate solution” on every carton it produces.
A shelf of Oatly drinks in a London supermarket.
Millions of oat milk drinkers around the world are about to learn that a supermajority of people want stronger climate action. Oatly, the world’s largest oat drink company, is printing summaries of what it calls “the ultimate climate solution” on every carton it produces. In 2025, the company reported selling 593 million liters of oat milk and related products across more than 40 countries. The goal, Oatly’s senior sustainability director Caroline Reid wrote on LinkedIn, is to “unlock the power of the 89% of people” who want governments to tackle the climate crisis. This summer, that crisis has led to at least 35,000 excess deaths from extreme heat in Europe alone.
Oatly launched the awareness campaign in response to Covering Climate Now’s 89 Percent Project. The Guardian, Agence France-Presse, and dozens of other CCNow partners have been reporting for more than a year on peer-reviewed studies and opinion surveys that found that 80 to 89 percent of the world’s people want governments to “do more” about climate change. The exact percentage varies by country: In Germany (which happens to be the biggest national market for oat milk), it’s 86 percent; in India, it’s 80 percent; in the United States, it’s 74 percent. The catch is that most of these people don’t realize they are the overwhelming majority, so they tend to stay silent on climate issues.
What makes the 89 percent message “the ultimate climate solution” is that it makes many other solutions—from technologies such as rooftop solar to policies such as ending fossil fuel subsidies—more achievable. “Governments can enable and support the transition” away from fossil fuels, Reid said, and they’re more likely to do so if a massive majority of people “use your voice,........