Photo: Johannes Plenio via StockSnap, public domain.
The world's leading climate science body says balanced diets built around plant foods present "major opportunities" to limit climate change, in a landmark report on land approved by the world's governments in Geneva.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) today released its Special Report on Climate Change and Land, prepared by 107 experts from 52 countries. It is the first IPCC report in which most of the authors (53%) come from developing countries. The report finds that agriculture, forestry and other land use account for 23% of human greenhouse gas emissions, and that about a third of all food produced is lost or wasted.
"Some dietary choices require more land and water, and cause more emissions of heat-trapping gases than others," said Debra Roberts, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II, in the IPCC press release. She went on:
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.
Lentils, beans, whole grains, fruit and veg: the foods the UN's climate scientists name are the same ones already on a vegan plate.
It follows January's EAT-Lancet report, in which 37 scientists agreed the world must halve red meat, and the Oxford study finding that a global vegan diet could save more than 8 million lives by 2050 and cut food emissions by 66%.
When the UN's climate scientists point to beans and lentils, the direction of travel is clear.