ProVeg welcomes Brazil’s commitment to prioritize climate-friendly food at next year’s UN climate summit, COP30

Catering options at COP30 next year will be healthy, sustainable, fairly priced and locally produced, Brazil has said. 

^{Plant-based food served at the 2024 Bonn Climate Conference. Credit: ProVeg}

Food awareness organization, ProVeg International, has today welcomed the Brazilian Government’s commitment to prioritize the provision of sustainable, healthy food – including plant-based options – at COP30, at next year’s UN climate summit, which will be held in the Brazilian city of Belém.

The announcement was made by Nilza de Oliveria, Brazil’s Director of Operations in the Extraordinary Secretariat for COP30, during the COP29 climate summit, which is still ongoing in Baku, Azerbaijan and ends on 22 November.

“We are delighted that Brazil has committed to providing healthy, sustainable food, including vegetarian and vegan options, that is locally produced and sold at fair prices, at next year’s COP30,” Lana Weidgenant, Senior UN Policy Manager at ProVeg, said. 

“Azerbaijan did provide some plant-based options but Brazil is wisely preparing in advance and taking advice from experts like ProVeg to ensure that the catering really leaves a strong, positive impression on, and inspiration to, next year’s delegates,” Weidgenant said.

Why the catering matters

Globally, up to one-fifth of total greenhouse gas emissions comes from animal agriculture¹ and 32% of human-caused emissions from methane – a powerful greenhouse gas – come from animal farming².

ProVeg helped ensure that at least two-thirds of last year’s food served at the UN climate summit in Dubai was vegan or vegetarian. Because plant-based food emits half the amount of greenhouse gasses as animal-based food, eating more plant-rich diets is an effective way of reducing emissions. 

“Increasing plant-based food options is vital to help bring home the message that transforming the global food system can mitigate the climate crisis,” Aline Baroni, Director of ProVeg Brazil, said.

“Also, production and consumption of animal-based products, notably beef, continues to have a huge effect on Brazil’s environment. The clearance of Amazon and Cerrado for grazing land and growing animal feed has caused widespread destruction to these important ecosystems,” Baroni said.

Nearly 70% of deforested lands in South America, including regions such as the Amazon, the largest remaining tropical rainforest in the world, along with the Cerrado savanna in Brazil and Gran Chaco, is used as cattle pasture³. 

Globally, 41% of tropical deforestation is driven by beef production⁴ and 50% can be attributed to the expansion of cropland, large parts of which are used for the production of feed crops for animal products from chickens and pigs. 

If the catering at the UN summits is largely plant-based, then delegates have the opportunity to realize for themselves how tasty a healthy, climate-friendly diet can be.

ENDS

Footnotes

1.  Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods | Nature Food
2. Cutting livestock methane emissions for stronger climate action (fao.org)
3. FAO (2022): FRA 2020 Remote Sensing Survey. FAO Forestry Paper No. 186. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb9970en
4. Pendrill, F., U. M. Persson, J. Godar, et al. (2019): Agricultural and forestry trade drives large share of tropical deforestation emissions. Global Environmental Change 56 1–10. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.03.002
   

Notes to Editors

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

Our vision is a world where everyone chooses delicious and healthy food that is good for all humans, animals, and our planet. 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.