A new study published in Nature Climate Change reveals that global greenhouse gas emissions from food supply chains could decrease by 17% if more people adopt plant-based diets. Researchers found that a significant portion of the global population—56.9%—currently over-consumes, and if these individuals switched to the planetary health diet proposed by the EAT-Lancet Commission, global dietary emissions could drop by 32.4%.
The study’s first author, Yanxian Li, noted that the objective is to explore the potential for emission reductions through voluntary dietary changes, rather than imposing a universal diet.
This dietary shift could also counterbalance a 15.4% rise in emissions from the 43.1% of the population who currently under-consume but would move toward healthier diets under the same guidelines. The study highlights that affluent countries, with higher consumption of red meat and dairy, contribute more to dietary emissions, while poorer countries, though consuming lower-emission diets, exhibit greater inequality in food distribution.
The authors emphasized the importance of reducing consumption of emission-intensive foods like beef, particularly in wealthy countries like Australia and the U.S, and suggests that measures such as carbon pricing, eco-labeling, and increasing the availability of plant-based foods could encourage more sustainable dietary choices.
Co-author, Klaus Hubacek, pointed out the challenges low-income countries face in adopting healthier diets. With over 1.5 billion people unable to afford the planetary health diet, increasing agricultural efficiency through better crop management and the introduction of high-yield crops is essential.
The study also highlights the inequality in dietary emissions within countries, based on detailed expenditure data across 140 food products in 139 countries, covering 95% of the global population. High costs and low affordability remain significant barriers for lower-income populations, necessitating policy efforts to make healthier food options more accessible and affordable.
A significant shift toward plant-based diets would require a drastic change in global food production, including an 81% reduction in red meat supply and substantial increases in the availability of legumes, nuts, and other plant-based foods.
Seldom is there a win -win situation but a whole food, plant-based diet contains many health benefits and simultaneously good for the planet.
Y Li et al. Reducing climate change impacts from the global food system through diet shifts. Nature Climate Change (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02084-1
