The global climate crisis will continue unless meat is removed

London - The global climate crisis will continue to worsen unless meat and dairy are removed from diets. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

This comes as New Zealand’s agricultural sector gears up for potential price emissions, which is a cost applied to carbon pollution, introduced to encourage a reduction in emissions).

New Zealand has previously railed against recommendations for plant-based diets, especially those in the IPCC report, which says a world without animal agriculture is now essential for human survival.

Ethically, all unnecessary methane sources have to be cut as fast and far as feasible. That means global veganisation is now a survival imperative.

The discussion on the global methane emergency has seen the UN demand a 45 percent reduction in methane emissions by 2030, to prevent global heating from rising above 1.5C.

Governments are now being lobbied to understand the gravity of the climate crisis, with plant-based diets included in the conversation. New Zealand is lucky that it has the chair of the Climate Change Commission Dr Rod Carr on the UN high level expert group.

Those pleading the case for plant-based lifestyles include Nobel laureates like Klaus Hasselmann, who won the 2021 Nobel Prize in physics, and Carlos Nobre, a 2007 Nobel Prize winner and IPCC author.

They are members of the Plant Based Treaty, an initiative designed to put food systems at the forefront of combating the climate crisis. Each used the Bonn climate change conference, held in June, as a platform.

IPCC research suggests that increased vegan diet uptake will positively impact the climate. This is due to reduced emissions when comparing plant crops to animal rearing. In addition, if everybody switched to plant-based eating, agricultural land demand would fall by 75 percent.

It takes 100 times more land to produce one kilo of beef or lamb than a plant-based equivalent protein crop. If the world turns vegan, land usage will reduce from 4.1 billion hectares to 1 billion and emissions will plummet.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation, animal agriculture is responsible for at least 14.5 percent of all anthropogenic emissions. It directly contributes one-third of all human-caused methane, leading experts to advise an immediate cessation of meat consumption.

London - The global climate crisis will continue to worsen unless meat and dairy are removed from diets. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

This comes as New Zealand’s agricultural sector gears up for potential price emissions, which is a cost applied to carbon pollution, introduced to encourage a reduction in emissions).

New Zealand has previously railed against recommendations for plant-based diets, especially those in the IPCC report, which says a world without animal agriculture is now essential for human survival.