Opportunity to sign the Belém Declaration on Plant-Rich Diets at New York Climate Week

Declaration highlights climate benefits in promoting plant-based food

A Declaration that highlights how plant-rich diets support climate mitigation, health, economic development, food security and the environment will be available to sign throughout New York Climate Week. 

Members of food awareness organization, ProVeg International, will be on the ground at the event to promote the document, called The Belém Declaration on Plant-Rich Diets.

The Declaration calls on UN member states to promote a shift to more climate-friendly, plant-based diets by drafting National Action Plans for Plant-Based Foods. 

Already carrying the signatures of more than 100 stakeholders, including representatives from cities, regional authorities and NGOs across the world, the Declaration will be formally presented at the UN climate summit, COP30, in Brazil in November.

“Delegates attending the New York Climate Week have the chance to discuss the Declaration with those who drafted the document and to sign up as representatives of authorities or NGOs,” Juliette Tronchon, Head of UN Affairs at ProVeg, said.

“Plant-based diets not only play a huge role in mitigating the climate crisis, they are also healthy for people, they support food security and can bring about large-scale employment opportunities.”

“Crucially, the Declaration seeks to both preserve the plant-rich culinary heritage of the Global South as well as address the overconsumption of meat in the Global North,¹” Tronchon said.

The Declaration, which is framed largely by the UN’s own scientific findings on plant-rich diets, calls for the following:

• Establishment of National Action Plans For Plant-Based Foods to promote healthy sustainable diets – from farm to fork – in order to increase food security and resilience, improve public health, mitigate climate change, protect and restore biodiversity, provide economic benefits, and ensure policy coherence. 
• Commitment to a deadline for the publication of National Action Plans For Plant-Based Foods in time for them to be tabled for discussion at COP32 in 2027. 
• Commitment to financial support for the implementation of National Action Plans For Plant-Based Foods from agrifood promotion budgets. 

Why food system transformation matters

Up to one fifth of total greenhouse gas emissions comes from animal agriculture and 32% of human-cased emissions from methane – a powerful greenhouse gas – comes from animal farming.

Plant-based foods, however, emit half the amount of greenhouse gasses compared to animal-based foods. Plant-based foods also use far less land and water than animal foods, produce less air and water pollution, and do not require the use of antibiotics or contribute to the risk of a pandemic.

ENDS

Footnotes

1. Meat consumption must fall by at least 75 percent — University of Bonn

Notes to Editors

The website for the Declaration can be found here.

To contact ProVeg about the Declaration during New York Climate Week, email [email protected]

For media inquiries, email Peter Rixon at [email protected].

For scientific data about the benefits of plant-based eating, see our Food System Data website.

About ProVeg International

ProVeg International is a food awareness organization with the mission to replace 50% of animal products globally with plant-based and cultivated foods by 2040. Our vision is a world where everyone chooses delicious and healthy food that is good for all humans, animals, and our planet.