Shifting to Plant-Based Diets Can Lead to Substantial Double Climate Dividend

A multinational study published in the journal Nature Food has used sophisticated models to predict the impact that shifting towards a plant-based diet would have in high income nations, finding that annual agricultural production emissions would be reduced by 61%. Not only that, but a vast amount of CO2 would be sequestered if the resulting spared land was restored to its antecedent natural vegetation, thus providing a substantial double climate dividend.

The authors, from Europe, China and the US, calculated the amount of carbon that could be sequestered if 54 high-income nations were to adopt the Eat Lancet Planetary Health Diet - which is mostly, but not exclusively, plant-based - would potentially fulfill high-income nations’ future sum of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) obligations.

The study suggests that if 54 of the world’s wealthiest countries alone participated, enough carbon could be saved and sequestered to avert climate disaster for the planet. As studies like these roll in, it just adds further weight to the words of Johan Rockström, Director of Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact, in The Game Changers: “Agriculture is not only the biggest culprit threatening the future for humanity on earth. It is potentially also the biggest and most important silver bullet to a solution.”

Reference:

Sun, Z., Scherer, L., Tukker, A. et al (2022). Dietary change in high-income nations alone can lead to substantial double climate dividend. Nat Food 3, 29–37.