UN body makes pitch for vegetarian diets

The Paris Agreement, signed in 2016, said it would “pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, recognising that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”.

The latest report by a UN body on environment has made a strong pitch for vegetarianism (or, at the least, primarily vegetarian diets).

The report sees plant-based diets as key to deal with climate change -- and also recommends that everyone eat less meat. (HT FILE)

Average land temperature has already crossed a redline mentioned in the Paris Agreement according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Climate Change and Land report’s summary for policy makers that also warned that measures to tackle global warming will be found wanting unless they focus on land-use, agriculture, and food.

Average land temperature has increased by 1.53 degree C since the pre-industrial period and the global mean temperature, which includes land and ocean, is higher by 0.87 degree C, according to the summary of the IPCC report released in Geneva on Thursday.

The Paris Agreement, signed in 2016, said it would “pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, recognising that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”. It is clear now that land temperatures have already crossed that line (as they were always expected to), although global mean temperatures (land and sea) still haven’t.

The report sees plant-based diets as key to deal with climate change -- and also recommends that everyone eat less meat.

The meeting to finalise the report, put together by around 100 experts including many from developing countries, was extended for a day because of a debate on whether the report should include science-based recommendations on dietary changes, which have a total mitigation potential of 0.7 to 8 Gt (gigatons) of CO2 equivalent per year by 2050.

“Balanced diets, featuring plant-based foods, such as those based on coarse grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and animal-sourced food produced in resilient, sustainable and low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission systems present major opportunities for adaptation and mitigation,” the report said.

Agriculture, food production, and deforestation produce about 23% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but 25% -30% of the total food produced is lost or wasted. During 2010-2016, global food loss and waste contributed 8 -10% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

“IPCC doesn’t recommend diets... (there is) scientific evidence that certain diets have lower carbon footprint,” said Jim Skea, co-chair of IPCC working group, at the press conference.

The summary is of special significance to India.

It warns that Asia and Africa will be the most vulnerable to desertification. Between 1961 and 2013, the annual area of drylands has increased on an average by more than 1% per year globally. “Climate change exacerbates land degradation, particularly in low-lying coastal areas, river deltas, dry lands and in permafrost areas,” the report said.

In 2015, about 500 million people lived in areas that experienced desertification between the 1980s and 2000s, with South and East Asia and the circum-Sahara region being the most affected.

The IPCC’s 2018 report -- which for the first time warned of serious impact from a warming of 1.5°C -- said temperatures on land would warm more than the global mean temperature. Extreme hot days in mid-latitudes were set to warm by up to about 3 degree C at a global warming of 1.5 degree C, the report said.

The new land report bears that out and warns of impact on soil fertility, increase in arid and desertified zones, contraction of polar climate zones, and stability of food supply.

In one scenario -- when consumption patterns continue as usual, medium population growth and slight decrease in inequality -- “global crop and economic models project a median increase of 7.6% in cereal prices in 2050 due to climate change,” the report said.

On the upside, it said land management can play an important role in keeping global temperatures down because of the soil’s ability to absorb carbon.

India is among the most vulnerable to land degradation, say experts, with a desertification and land degradation Atlas by Space Applications Centre showing 29.32% of the country’s geographical area undergoing land degradation in 2011-13.

Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Goa have more than 50% of land area undergoing desertification/land degradation. States with less than 10% land degradation are Kerala, Assam, Mizoram, Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Arunachal Pradesh.

“It’s a major crisis because land degradation impacts food security, water availability and accentuates desertification. Wind and water erosion are major drivers of land degradation. Over-irrigation and poor land management practices make it more serious,” said NH Ravindranath, climate scientist, Indian Institute of Science, who represented India in IPCC report deliberations.

“India is vulnerable to many aspects of climate change-- heat-waves, increasing intensity and frequency of intense rain and its interaction with land-use that could lead to land degradation and desertification… our pioneering and large scale experiments decades ago in managing land under different types of climate and non-climatic stress like integrated watershed management can be useful,” said report co-author Jagdish Krishnaswamy, senior fellow at Ashoka Trust in Ecology and the Environment.