Vegetarian diets and a “sin” tax on unsustainable meat could help to limit climate change, a major new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says.
Reducing food waste and paying for the environmental services of nature could help the transition.
The major report looks at human impact on natural systems and how better land management could help offset the impact of rising greenhouse gas emissions.
People currently use one-quarter to one-third of land’s potential net primary production for food, feed, fibre, timber and energy.
Reducing deforestation and improving agricultural systems could make a big impact both on greenhouse gas emissions and the natural take-up of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
However, the IPCC report said while land could make a valuable contribution to climate change mitigation, there were limits to the use of bioenergy crops or afforestation which could compete with food production.
Pep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project and a researcher at CSIRO, said the report was a clear call for “a wholesale rethinking of the way we use and manage the land”.
“The report is a sobering assessment of how much human activities have abused land resources with increased degradation and desertification, and a more recent greening trend, in good part reflecting the intensification of agriculture,” Dr Canadell said. The report records that about a third of food produced is lost or wasted.
IPCC co-chair Debra Roberts, said some “ dietary choices require more land and water, and cause more emissions of heat-trapping gases than others’’. “Balanced diets featuring plant-based foods, such as coarse grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables, and animal-sourced food produced sustainably in low greenhouse gas emission systems, present major opportunities for adaptation to and limiting climate change.’’
Modelling shows the potential greenhouse gas savings from changed diets would be between 0.7 and 0.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year.
For livestock, options include better grazing land management, improved manure management, higher-quality feed, and use of breeds and genetic improvement.
“The adoption of sustainable land management and poverty eradication can be enabled by improving access to markets, securing land tenure, factoring environmental costs into food, making payments for ecosystem services, and enhancing local and community collective action,” the report said.
A “sin” tax on meat has been widely debated in Europe.
Germany’s federal environment agency has in the past suggested lifting taxes on animal products such as liver sausages, eggs and cheese to 19 per cent from 7 per cent for environmental reasons.
Parliaments in Denmark and Sweden have considered the issue and the Greens members of the EU parliament have suggested a union-wide scheme.
Environmental groups have welcomed the report’s focus on land repair. WWF Australia chief executive Dermot O’Gorman said there was tremendous potential for vegetation and soil to suck up and store greenhouse gases.
“Right now too much of Australia’s soil is degraded or being eroded away. Too many forests have been lost and remaining trees continue to be cut down,” Mr O’Gorman said.
Australian Conservation Foundation board member Garry Gale, said food security was at risk if we didn’t act quickly.
Mark Howden, director of the Australian National University’s Climate Change Institute and an IPCC vice-chair, said the report confirmed the world “has a double-edged sword hanging over its head”.
“We ignore the interactions between climate change and the land at our peril,” he said.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/go-vegetarian-to-limit-climate-change-ipcc-report/news-story/411604a4b88159d85859e72fa5aee888?utm_source=The%20Australian&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_content=BreakingNews
