Reducing meat and dairy consumption will play a vital role in helping the UK reduce its carbon emissions, the Climate Change Committee has told government.
The independent adviser to the government on climate issues set out its recommendations to cut back greenhouse gas emissions from 2038 to 2042 in its seventh carbon budget, published on Wednesday.
The CCC said 7% of the emissions reduction by 2040 came from agriculture and land use, and that reaching net zero goals required “a reduction in livestock numbers, most notably to free up land to plant trees”.
“While low-carbon farming practices and technologies, including livestock measures and decarbonising machinery, can achieve a substantial reduction in agricultural emissions, reaching net zero across the agriculture and land use sectors requires a reduction in livestock numbers,” the committee said.
“This can be achieved by supporting farmers to diversify their income streams and by a reduction in average UK meat and dairy consumption.”
The analysis also forecasts that agriculture – currently 11% of UK greenhouse gas emissions – will be the second highest-emitting sector by 2040, after aviation.
Riley Jackson, head of marketing & partnerships at Ivy Farm Technologies, said the CCC’s carbon budget “once again shines a light on the scale of the problem we face in our battle to reduce GHG emissions from everyday life”.
“In food this mission has never been more critical; to reach net-zero, meat consumption must fall by 30% by 2050, but current findings from the CCC show that we’re vastly off-track.”
He noted consumers were “reluctant to give up food they know and love, despite knowing that eating too much meat is having a grave impact on our planet”.
The CCC report estimates that expanding the availability of plant-based meat and dairy options and whole plant-based foods could create net benefits of £900m for the UK economy by 2040.
It also suggests that developing cheaper plant-based meat and dairy options could lead to slight reductions in household food costs in the long term.
Recent Food Standards Agency research found that 27% of UK adults buy plant-based meat once a month.
A citizens’ panel organised by the CCC said the price of plant-based food needs to be reduced and diversity bolstered to make those options more attractive.
Read more: Net zero 2030 targets will be missed without >20% meat and dairy cut IGD report warns
Linus Pardoe, senior UK policy manager at think tank the Good Food Institute Europe (GFI Europe), said: “The Climate Change Committee is clear: we cannot continue to shy away from the need to diversify our protein sources to deliver more nutritious diets and meet our climate targets.
“Providing more plant-based meat and dairy options, as well as plant-based whole foods, can unlock new economic opportunities across the UK while helping people to live healthier lives without the need for huge changes to their eating habits.”
CO2 and other harmful gases need to be cut to around a quarter of today’s levels in order for the UK to meet its legally blinding net zero by 2050 goals, as stipulated by the Paris Climate Agreement.
Carbon budgets are set every five years, and look to set out measures that need to be implemented in a decade or more to foster long-term views and policymaking.
Labour ministers will now have until June next year to respond to the CCC’s findings.
The government is also expected to publish a detailed national food strategy in the coming months, amid growing calls for long-term measures to not only incentivise meat and dairy reductions but also help farmers through that process.
“We need policy decisions which not only encourage farmers to rear livestock more sustainably, but ones which also encourage new sources of protein,” Jackson said.
The committee also set out measures for the highly-polluting energy, aviation and industrial sectors.
Professor Piers Forster, interim chair of the Climate Change Committee, said: “For a long time, decarbonisation in this country has really meant work in the power sector, but now we need to see action on transport, buildings, industry and farming. This will create opportunities in the economy, tackle climate change, and bring down household bills.
“Our analysis shows that there is no need to pitch action on climate change against the economy. We will need government and business to deliver the investment, but we are confident that this seventh carbon budget offers a secure, prosperous future for the UK.”
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