A United Nations report co-produced by over 100 scientists says that global meat consumption must be reduced. Doing so would not only help deal with global warming but would also reduce strains on land and water supply, improve food security, health and biodiversity, authors say.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which advises governments, fell short of calling for the world to go “meat-free”, but urged big changes to farming and eating habits to limit the impact of population growth and changing consumption patterns on stretched land and water resources.
Cutting meat consumption and incorporating more plant-based products into diets could hit emissions, as well as improve diets, the IPCC argued.
“Balanced diets, featuring plant-based foods, such as those based on coarse grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and animal-sourced food produced in resilient, sustainable and low-GHG emission systems, present major opportunities for adaptation and mitigation while generating significant co-benefits in terms of human health,” the report said.
According to the IPCC, plant-based foods and sustainable animal-sourced food could free up several million square kilometers of land by 2050 and cut 0.7-8.0 gigatonnes per year of carbon dioxide equivalent.
“There are certain kinds of diets that have a lower carbon footprint and put less pressure on land,” Jim Skea, professor at London’s Imperial College, said on Thursday. “The IPCC does not recommend people’s diets, however dietary choices are very often shaped or influenced by local production practices and cultural habits.”
Skea is one of the report’s authors.
Last year the IPCC’s first special report warned that keeping the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), rather than the 2C target agreed under the Paris accord, required rapid change across society.
This year’s study will be used in forthcoming climate and environment negotiations, such as the Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (COP14) in New Delhi in September and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Santiago, the Chilean capital, in December.
