Eating less meat can have significant impact on carbon emissions, says WWF study

Reducing your meat consumption has a significant impact on carbon emissions, according to a report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) published last week. – Photo: Relaxnews

Reducing your meat consumption has a significant impact on carbon emissions, according to a report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) published last Wednesday.

The environmental organisation analysed the average food consumption of Germans between 2015 and 2018, and found that although vegans and vegetarians fared best regarding environmental impact, consciously eating less meat significantly reduces carbon emissions.

The study looked at so-called flexitarians, who consume 470 grams of meat per week on average - compared to the average German, who eats 817 grams of meat every week. Together with dairy, this accounts for 70 per cent of carbon emissions from food.

Reducing meat consumption by half could cut down Germany's carbon emissions from food production by 27 per cent, or 56 million tons, according to WWF.

If everyone switched to a fully vegetarian or vegan diet, this could even reduce carbon emissions by half, or 98 to 102 million tons, WWF said.

Overall, Germany produces around 210 million tons of carbon emissions from food per year.

WWF urged people to rethink their diets and called on the German government to consider introducing a tax on animal products. – dpa

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