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Left unchecked, Western Diets could derail climate action-If current consumption
trends continue, with meat consumption in emerging and developing countries
increasing but remaining considerably below Western levels, we will stay on track
for a global temperature rise of two degrees.(January 30 2015)
The information below based on the news from the Chatham House which I came across
today (Left Unchecked, Western Diets Could Derail Climate Action) made me compile the
information which I thought would be useful for you. Using also the Global Calculator you
can see the results projected for the land use in (M ha) in the next 50 years depending on
low or high meat consumption as well... A growing body of evidence shows the impact that
unsustainable levels of meat consumption – particularly of meats like beef and lamb – have
on the planet.
As shown in a recent Chatham House report, the livestock sector contributes nearly 15 per
cent of all greenhouse gas emissions, roughly equivalent to those from transport.
Yet minimal attention has been paid to the unsustainable manner in which we produce and
consume meat, and public awareness of the impact of dietary choices on our environment is
low.
The UK Department for Energy and Climate Change recently launched an interactive web
tool (http://www.globalcalculator.org/)that allows users to explore various lifestyle choices
and energy uses, and their effect on global greenhouse gas emissions and subsequent
temperature rise by the end of the century. The ‘Global Calculator’ provides a striking
visualization of what experts already know: if adopted globally, the Western diet is
incompatible with staying below the limit of two degrees above pre-industrial levels,
deemed necessary to avoid dangerous climate change.
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The results are compelling. If the energy sector is successfully decarbonized by 2050,
our diets can make the difference between the two-degree scenario in which dangerous
climate change is averted and the four-degree scenario described by the World
Bank(Turn down the heat- http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/pressrelease/2012/11/18/new-report-examines-risks-of-degree-hotter-world-by-end-ofcentury) as one of ‘cataclysmic’ climate change.
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If current consumption trends continue, with meat consumption in emerging and
developing countries increasing but remaining considerably below Western levels, we will
stay on track for a global temperature rise of two degrees.
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But if the Western diet becomes the norm by 2050, even with cleaner energy and
ambitious action in other areas of our lifestyles, we are headed for a global temperature
rise of four degrees. Such a scenario implies a considerable escalation compared with
current trends but is not inconceivable: consumption in emerging and developing
economies is rising rapidly
As the ‘Global Calculator’ demonstrates, if decarbonization is accompanied by a push to
curb unsustainable levels of emissions-intensive meat consumption, a 1.5 degree world –
which offers the best chance of avoiding drastic climate impacts and ensuring the survival of
low-lying island states − begins to look like a very real possibility.
As consumers around the world look to experts and environmental groups to inform them
about climate change and its causes, communication tools like the Global Calculator could
be an invaluable means of broadcasting a message that has gone largely unheard. And with
such powerful evidence, the need for urgent action on diets will be difficult to ignore.
Sources used:
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The impact of diet on the International Energy Agency’s two-degree and four-degree
scenarios can be explored further through Chatham House’s high-meat and low-meat
pathways, available for selection within the Global Calculator.
(http://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/16752)
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Recent Chatham House report "Livestock- Climate Change's forgotten sector. Global
public opinion on meat and dairy
consumption(http://www.chathamhouse.org/publication/livestock-%E2%80%93climate-change%E2%80%99s-forgotten-sector-global-public-opinion-meat-and-dairy)
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Impact of livestock on climate change could not be ignored
(http://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/16379
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Left Unchecked, Western Diets Could Derail Climate Action (
http://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/16752)