Impact Tech Insights

Jun 17, 2021 6:20:49 PM
Editorial Team

Role of plant-based diet in fighting climate change, a hype?

A new study published in Science reveals that moving to a more plant-based diet is a key component in fighting the rapidly accelerating climate crisis. According to Michael Clark, a researcher at Oxford University and a co-author of the study, “Discussions on mitigating climate change typically focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, for instance, from transportation or energy production. However, our research emphasises the importance of reducing emissions from the global food system.” 

“The good news is that there are many achievable ways to rapidly reduce food emissions if they are acted on quickly. These include both raising crop yields and reducing food loss and waste, but the most important is for individuals to shift towards predominantly plant-based diets,” he adds.

This finding is consistent with published data that says moving to a plant-based diet would help reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares – a staggering 75% reduction which is equivalent to the size of North America and Brazil combined.

 

Plant-based diet’s role, a hype?

 

But this is under the hypothetical scenario that the entire world adopted a vegan diet. The challenge, of course, is changing habits and mindsets. In many parts of the world, meat consumption is at an all-time high. And in some countries, such as China, beef consumption is actually growing. The problem is exacerbated by food waste in wealthy nations, such as the United States, where it is estimated that up 40% of food supply go to waste according to FDA. 

So, while there’s a growing trend to switch to plant-based diet, its role in addressing the ill effects of climate change in a timely manner are unlikely. In the USA today about 4% of the population are vegetarian and only 0.5% are vegan. Claimed vegetarians has only risen 1.5% in 20 years from 2.5% in 2000. Habit change is notoriously hard and so while encouraging people to eat more plant based meals we also need to deliver other solutions for reducing emissions in agriculture.

To put things into context, Dr Steve Meller, co-founder of CH4 Global, a company that develops disruptive solutions for Climate Change and a former consultant for the Australia’s leading science agency, CSIRO, explained: “Plant based meats are great idea, but we need perspective also. We are aligned with the view of many climate scientists that we have 10 years or less to avoid a climate “tipping point” and keep temperature increase below 2C. So solutions that can be enacted urgently are crucial.

 

The world needs protein

 

“The world also needs every single source of protein that we as humans can consume to feed the projected 9 billion people who will be on the planet It is not a competition. We cannot afford for any source of protein to be unavailable whether it’s through increasing the efficiency of cows (which we do), or plant-based proteins, cultured meats, the consumption of insects or any other approach for producing protein - we cannot close that gap without every single source today and in the future, we need them all,” he said.

Dr Meller offered that a smart solution lies in the way we address the greatest source of methane emissions globally, which is agriculture. Methane, which is the real problem, is far more damaging to the planet than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. As such, it must be contained. Within agriculture cows are, by far, the greatest source of methane on the planet today, about 12.9 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents on an annualized basis. 

So, can plant-based diet help reverse climate change? The answer is yes, but it is not enough and it will take too long. A plant- based diet can certainly help in terms of mitigation of climate change but its impact over the coming decade through to 2030 will depend on a whole host of factors. 

“The amount of plant-based diet that will replace meats is certainly going to increase but its impact, in terms of replacement of cattle, is going to be small over the coming decades and therefore its impact on climate change will also be small,” concludes Dr Meller.

 

***

Dr Steve Meller will be speaking at the upcoming Impact X Summit on Climate Growth, happening on 21-22 September in Sydney. This summit will bring Australia’s most promising and exciting innovators to the stage and will directly address the decarbonisation and resilience opportunity and connect technology founders and carbon service providers with the investors, buyers and partners they need to scale. To learn more or to register to attend the conference, click here.

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