The high-profile environmental events taking place over the next month will be wasted opportunities unless plant-rich diets are given prominence
In the coming weeks, tens of thousands of delegates will be in attendance at major environmental summits. In Colombia, the UN biodiversity summit is in full swing this week, and will be followed next month by the more high-profile UN climate summit, COP29, which will take place in Azerbaijan and will no doubt attract a blaze of media.
During these vitally important global events, some of the world’s sharpest global minds will wrestle for countless hours seeking solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss. But their efforts will be wasted if they don’t squarely address the negative impact of our global food system on the environment.
Food will be firmly on the agenda at both events. But, going by previous such events, it’s highly likely that many worthy presentations will dance awkwardly around the most destructive aspect of our food system and its impact on climate and the natural world: industrial meat production.
Here’s a quick recap of where we are now: Animal agriculture is responsible for about a fifth of global greenhouse gases and farmed animals are responsible for 32% of global human-made methane emissions. Methane, it should be noted, is about 80 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2 over a 20-year period. It’s not good for the climate – and there’s no dancing around that fact.
It’s not good for biodiversity, either. Globally, 41% of tropical deforestation is driven by beef production and 50% of this can be attributed to the expansion of cropland used for the production of feed crops for animals.
This is where plant-rich diets come in. But, rather than simply being granted permission to be a part of the conversation, they should be taking centre stage during the food-system discussions at these summits. Plant-rich diets currently play a very minor role at these events, although credit is due to the organisers of COP28 in Dubai last year, who ensured that two thirds of the catering was plant-based (thanks, in part, to discussions held with ProVeg and its partners). But the fact that it took more than 28 years – and considerable external pressure – to provide sustainable catering at a global environmental summit is in itself extremely telling, and a testament to the enormous inertial power of the status quo.
There is no question about it – a global shift in our diets will do more to minimise climate change than any other single intervention. The global adoption of the planetary health diet could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our current food system by 48% by the end of the century. (The planetary health diet is a global reference diet for adults that is symbolically represented by half a plate of fruits and vegetables. The other half consists primarily of whole grains, plant proteins, unsaturated plant oils, modest amounts of meat and dairy, and some added sugars and starchy vegetables.)
Shifting to a more sustainable food system also has enormous carbon-sequestration potential, which means that our food system could capture emissions produced by other sectors. If we reforest and rewild some of the 80% of global agricultural land currently used to produce animal-based food, it will absorb carbon from the atmosphere, creating a carbon sink, which would further benefit both climate and food security by making supply chains more resilient to changing weather patterns.
Given the critical role of food in the climate and nature crisis, it is imperative that the topic features prominently on the agendas of these major events, both in the next weeks and over the coming years, as things get ever more urgent.
ProVeg will be attending the Biodiversity Conference and will also be present at COP29, pushing for an urgent shift to healthier and more sustainable diets as a key mechanism in the fight against climate change – and a powerful way for the planet’s people and their governments to take effective action to heal and restore the earth.
One of the key themes raised at COP16, and likely at COP29, is that transforming our food systems for the benefit of climate and nature will require collaborative multi-stakeholder action. The food industry has a key role to play in this transition, and could help to drive the adoption of healthy sustainable diets at the required pace and scale. They, together with climate negotiators, national governments, and individuals, all have a key role to play in ensuring that the food we eat is healthier for both humans and the planet.
Simon Middleton
Senior Writer
