Topic summary
Mitigate climate change
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Climate change mitigation.
Dietary change
A shift towards plant-based diets would help to mitigate climate change. In particular, reducing meat consumption would help to reduce methane emissions. The Global Methane Pledge is an initiative launched by the United States and European Union to reduce global methane emissions by 30% by 2030 to keep the 1.5°C global warming limit in reach. If high-income nations switched to a plant-based diet, vast amounts of land used for animal agriculture could be allowed to return to their natural state. This in turn has the potential to sequester 100 billion tonnes of CO2 by the end of the century. A comprehensive analysis found that plant based diets reduce emissions, water pollution and land use significantly (by 75%), while reducing the destruction of wildlife and usage of water.