Beginning today, world leaders from over 190 nations are meeting in Paris for the COP21 Paris Climate Conference to hopefully pass resolutions to combat climate change. The stakes couldn't be higher, but the outcome remains unclear.
Last week, world-leading think-tank Chatham House, released a report which boldly stated that reducing global meat consumption is critical to keeping global warming below thetwo degree Celsius which is the primary goal of the upcoming negotiations.
Among the major issues found in the report:
- Our appetite for meat is a major driver of climate change. Reducing global meat consumption will be critical to keeping global warming below the ‘danger level’ of two degrees Celsius. According to the report, the livestock sector accounts for 15 per cent of global emissions, equivalent to exhaust emissions from all the vehicles in the world. A shift to healthier patterns of meat-eating could bring a quarter of the emissions reductions we need to keep on track for a two-degree world.
- Global meat consumption has already reached unhealthy levels, and is on the rise. In industrialized countries, the average person is already eating twice as much meat as is deemed healthy by experts. Overconsumption is already contributing to the rise of obesity and non-communicable diseases like cancer and type-2 diabetes, and it is a growing problem: global meat consumption is set to rise by over 75 per cent by 2050.
- Governments are missing a key opportunity for climate mitigation, trapped in a cycle of inertia. In spite of a compelling case for addressing meat consumption and shifting diets, governments fear the repercussions of intervention, while low public awareness means they feel little pressure to intervene.
Governments are missing a key opportunity for climate mitigation, trapped in a cycle of inertia.
We need to take action and put a call out to the world leaders: #EarthToParis, include meat consumption and the devastating effects on animal agriculture during the climate discussion.
Join us on our social media channels over the next few days and let’s try to make change happen.