“We don’t want to tell people what to eat,” says Hans-Otto Pörtner, an ecologist who co-chairs the IPCC’s working group on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. “But it would indeed be beneficial, for both climate and human health, if people in many rich countries consumed less meat, and if politics would create appropriate incentives to that effect.”
The IPCC report highlights the need to preserve and restore forests, which soak up carbon from the air, and peatlands, which release carbon if dug up. The report states with high confidence that balanced diets featuring plant-based and sustainably produced animal-sourced food “present major opportunities for adaptation and mitigation while generating significant co-benefits in terms of human health”.
By 2050, dietary changes could free up several million square kilometres of land, and reduce global CO2 emissions by up to eight billion tonnes per year, relative to business as usual, the scientists estimate (see 'What if people ate less meat?').
Eat less meat: UN climate-change report calls for change to human diet
By 2050, dietary changes could free up several million square kilometres of land, and reduce global CO2 emissions by up to eight billion tonnes per year, relative to business as usual, the scientists estimate (see 'What if people ate less meat?').
Eat less meat: UN climate-change report calls for change to human diet
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