Scandalously: the meat industry have blocked the IPCC from highlighting the need for more plant-based diets

🚨 Echoing fossil fuel industry tactics. The IPCC report draft previously stated: "A shift to diets with a higher share of plant-based protein in regions with excess consumption of calories and animal-source food can lead to substantial reductions in GHG emissions… Plant-based diets can reduce GHG emissions by up to 50% compared to the average emission intensive Western diet."

This text was removed, following pressure from Brazil and Argentina - which are heavily influenced by domestic meat industry lobbyists, linked to deforestation and corruption - with the text replaced with “balanced, sustainable healthy diets acknowledging nutritional needs.” The mention of meat's high climate impact, and the overconsumption of meat particularly in Western diets, is removed.

However, unfiltered, the message from IPCC scientists is clear. For instance: "Without reducing and cutting down on meat consumption and the associated high-intensity agriculture systems, we will not be able to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees. That is very clear," the scientist and co-chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Hans Poertner, said in March 2022.

Previously, the IPCC found, with high confidence, that a shift to more plant-based diets could mitigate GHG emissions - e.g. a flexitarian diet (75% of meat and dairy replaced by cereals and pulses, with only one portion of red meat a week) would reduce global emissions by approximately 5 GtCO2eq per year. This is equivalent to a 54% reduction in the 9.3 Gt CO2eq of 2018 global agricultural emissions (within the farm gate and including related land use change).

By Martin Bowman

#food #meat #plantbased #lessandbettermeat #climatechange #climatecrisis #biglivestock #defundbiglivestock