Mighty Earth’s Net Zero lawsuit against JBS gets greenlight for D.C. Superior Court
A district court judge in Washington, D.C., has rejected a motion by JBS to dismiss Mighty Earth’s legal case against beef giant JBS USA for making false and misleading net zero claims.
The District Court judge from the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C., John D. Bates, has found that Mighty Earth’s lawsuit against JBS USA should be remanded and proceed at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in the U.S. capital.
Mighty Earth claimed, in a lawsuit filed at the Superior Court in October 2025, that JBS USA made false and deceptive promises of net zero emissions by 2040 which the company had neither the intention nor capability of fulfilling.
With an annual turnover of $77 billion and operations in 25 countries, JBS is the world’s largest meat company that slaughters over 27 million cows per year and is estimated to emit more greenhouse gas emissions than Spain.
In the complaint, Mighty Earth claim JBS USA are misleading D.C. consumers because JBS has only committed to make reductions to just 3% of its entire climate emissions by 2040 – and JBS does not account for the huge amount of emissions from deforestation linked to its vast cattle operations in Brazil and the threatened Amazon rainforest.
Judge Bates found that although Mighty Earth had not suffered an “injury” in its private capacity due to JBS USA’s net zero claims, the global environmental group still had legal standing and could bring its claim as a public interest organization on behalf of D.C. consumers at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
JBS has repeatedly been challenged for its false and misleading net zero claims. Most recently, the New York State Attorney General, Letitia James, sued JBS USA at the New York Supreme Court and secured a $1.1 million settlement in November 2025 which committed JBS USA to reforming its net zero-related marketing practices. In particular, JBS USA agreed to remove or revise its existing US consumer-facing statements relating to net zero by 2040 and can only present statements related to “Net Zero by 2040” as a “goal” as opposed to a “pledge” or a “commitment”.
Mighty Earth’s net zero-related lawsuit against JBS USA will now move forward at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C.
ends
For more information please contact:
Alex Wijeratna, Senior Director, Investigations and Law
[email protected]
Carole Mitchell, Global Director of Communications
[email protected]
+44 7917 105000
About Mighty Earth
Mighty Earth is a global advocacy organization working to defend a living planet. Our goal is to protect Nature and secure a climate that allows life to flourish. We are obsessed with impact, and our team has achieved transformative change by persuading leading industries to dramatically reduce deforestation and climate pollution throughout their global supply chains in palm oil, rubber, cocoa, and animal feed, while improving livelihoods for Indigenous and local communities across the tropics.
