UN asks to eat less meat to fight climate change

The planet needs us to urgently change the way to use and cultivate the land and our diet – With more plant-based foods and less meat – to guarantee both the food security of humanity and the fight against climate change, warned Thursday UN experts on the climate.

New report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), approved after five days of meetings, highlights that a " Better land management can help curb climate changealthough this is not the only solution. "

According to the report, there is no time left, as the warming of emerging lands has reached 1.53 ° C, twice the increase in global temperature (including the oceans). "From 2 ° C of global warming, we could face more severe and more severe food-related food crises," warned one of the report's authors, Jean-François Soussana.

On more than 1,000 pages, the IPCC asked "short-term" shares against land degradation, food waste or greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector

In this regard, the document recommends the implementation of "policies reducing food waste and influencing the choice of certain food options", referring to less carnivorous diets and that reduce the obese or overweight population, nearly 2 billion people.

According to the IPCC, a decrease in meat consumption reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock and would release the earth for more sustainable uses.

Currently between "25 and 30% of total food production is wastedAccording to the report, some 820 million people around the world continue to be hungry, experts say the fight against waste could reduce the pressure to reduce forests and increase farmland, thus contributing to the reduction emissions from CO2 (the main gas behind the greenhouse effect).

It is also proposed to resume farming, livestock and forestry practices of traditional indigenous peoples, because according to the document "their experience can contribute to the challenges of climate change, food security, biodiversity conservation and the fight against desertification. "

The report defines for the first time the direct relationship between climate change and global land degradation (more arid areas, loss of biodiversity, desertification) and warns against an increase in droughts in areas such as the Mediterranean or South Africa due to global warming.

According to the IPCC text, in other regions, such as boreal forests, the effects of climate change could include an increased risk of forest fires or pests.

The main conclusion is that "our land use […] it is not sustainable and contributes to climate change "IPCC Co-Chair Valérie Mbadon-Delmotte tells press agency AFP and noted that the report "emphasizes the importance of acting immediately".