The decrease is primarily attributed to shifts from red meat to nuts and legumes

Climate goals cannot be achieved without efforts to reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions, which account for approximately one-third of human-induced emissions. A new study published in Nature Climate Change modeled the changes in food-related emissions associated with worldwide adoption of the Planetary Health Diet (PHD), a healthy dietary pattern proposed by the EAT-Lancet Commission that could feed the growing global population sustainably. Among other recommendations, the PHD calls for consumption of nuts and fruits to more than double.

The study evaluated diet-induced greenhouse gas emissions throughout the global food supply chains —including agricultural land use, agricultural production and beyond-farm processes— and quantified the emissions associated with 140 products. The researchers constructed a hypothetical scenario in which everyone in all countries has shifted from their 2019 baseline diet to the PHD. They then estimated the changes in greenhouse gas emissions associated with this shift.

The findings showed that global dietary emissions would decrease by 17% under the PHD. The researchers primarily attribute this decrease to shifts from red meat —one of the largest sources of global emissions in the 2019 baseline scenario, and a category with considerably higher emissions per unit of calories compared to other categories— to nuts and legumes as principal protein sources.

Li, Y., He, P., Shan, Y., Li, Y., Hang, Y., Shao, S., … & Hubacek, K. (2024). Reducing climate change impacts from the global food system through diet shifts. Nature Climate Change, 1-11.

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