Meeting EU Climate Targets Through Meat Reduction

Meeting the challenges of a warming climate is a very difficult task. Most policies — especially those that are national or continental in scope — have focused broadly on the reduction of CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the European Union (EU), the focus has mainly been on the use of fossil fuels in transportation as well as deforestation, which indirectly raises CO2 by reducing the ability of the environment to naturally mitigate GHGs. The EU has set fairly ambitious targets for reducing its GHG emissions, seeking a drop of “at least 80%, or possibly up to 95%, by 2050 relative to 1990 levels.”

Obviously this is a significant amount and, as researchers note, “focusing on fossil fuels and deforestation may not be enough, because methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from agriculture” may have grown too large. This leads to the question: if we need to reduce GHG emissions caused by animal agriculture, how much do they have to be reduced to meet those ambitious targets? The researchers say there are “specific technology options” that have showed some promise in reducing emissions, for example managing manure with special “nitrification inhibitors” and fat additives that “reduce CH4 from ruminants,” but many of those are in “experimental or pilot-scale” states and cannot be assumed to have wider application.

Here the researchers wanted to understand how much agriculture would actually have to be reduced to meet GHG targets without technological help. Researchers looked at a baseline scenario as well as “five alternative scenarios with less GHG intensive diets” to make their assertions, including “Less Meat, Dairy Beef, Vegetarian, Climate Carnivore, and Vegan” scenarios. They note that animal products are “particularly relevant because this group accounts for about 90% of food-related CH4 and N2O emissions, and technological options for these are more limited and costly compared to CO2 mitigation from fossil fuels.”

The researchers found that “current trends in food-related CH4 and N2O emissions are at odds with the EU climate targets.” To meet the ambitious targets will also require an ambitious approach. The authors of this study note that “deep cuts in beef and mutton consumption seem to be unavoidable,” and also outline that these reductions may have to be by about “50% or more.” For advocates, this study is another in a long line of previous studies showing the challenges of meeting climate change targets while consuming meat. The conclusions once again support the idea that people need to shift towards a veg*n or at least drastically meat-reduced diet if they want to lessen their impact on the environment.