A new study by Greenpeace Nordic has suggested that emissions from the meat and dairy sector rival those produced by the world’s biggest oil companies.
The Turning down the heat: Pulling the Climate Emergency Brake on Big Meat and Dairy report says that ‘systematic changes in production and consumption’ are needed to reduce the methane emissions impact of the meat and dairy industries, which, if left unregulated, could heat up the planet by an additional 0.32°C by 2050.
The report claims that the emissions of 29 leading meat and dairy companies rival those of the 100 biggest corporations in the fossil fuels sector.
The Greenpeace Nordic report estimates that a cooling effect of 0.12°C could be achieved by 2050 through a reduction in meat and dairy overproduction and overconsumption. This would represent a 37% decrease in the expected mid-century warming of 0.32°C attributed to meat and dairy under typical production and consumption scenarios.
Even a slight reduction in climate warming can lead to significant benefits, Greenpeace added – for example, preventing a warming of 0.3°C by the end of the century could decrease the exposure to extreme heat for 410 million people, according to one study.
‘A just transition’
‘It is possible to meaningfully slow down climate heating within our lifetime with a just food system transition out of industrial meat and dairy production, increasing plant-based food, in line with the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health diet,’ Greenpeace noted.
“For so long, we have tiptoed around big meat and dairy companies and their unfettered growth as if they are somehow exempt from making the drastic changes required of everyone else on this planet,” commented Shefali Sharma, senior agriculture campaigner for Greenpeace Nordic. “It’s always either the farmer or the consumer who has to change, while these companies decide what farmers grow, what they are paid and what we eat. We have shown that the pathway is clear.”
Climate responsibilities
Greenpeace also claims that meat and dairy firms often ‘greenwash‘ their climate impacts, adding that governments frequently overlook the climate responsibilities of these sectors.
Sharma emphasised the need for governments to take decisive action to promote investments and regulations that would facilitate a more sustainable agriculture and food system.
“It’s a pathway that rights wrongs in the food and agriculture sector by driving out overproduction and overconsumption of meat and dairy,” Sharma added. ‘It requires governments to support farmers and workers in a just transition and gives all of us a fighting chance to limit global heating while saving millions of lives and livelihoods.” Read more here.
