Reducing climate change impacts from the global food system through diet shifts

Authors: Yanxian Li, Pan He, Yuli Shan, Yu Li, Ye Hang, Shuai Shao, Franco Ruzzenenti & Klaus Hubacek

Journal: Nature Climate Change

Changing food consumers choices may help cut greenhouse gases

“Food choices matter a lot for global greenhouse gas emissions, but the contributions of different groups, across or within countries, are highly unequal. Changing food choices towards the EAT-Lancet planetary health diet could have dual benefits by reducing both emissions and inequality among populations,” stated Klaus Hubacek from the University of Groningen in a new study that was published on 13 August 2024 in Nature Climate Change.

Within countries, consumer groups with higher expenditures generally cause more dietary emissions due to higher red meat and dairy intake. This study shows that affluent countries consume high-emission diets but display relatively lower levels of inequality, while many poor countries tend to have diets with lower emissions but higher levels of inequality.

Planet-warming GHG emissions associated with the global food supply chains induced by diets could fall by 17% if people change their food choices towards the planetary health diet. More than half (56.9%) of the global population, which is presently overconsuming, would save 32.4% of global emissions through diet shifts, offsetting the 15.4% increase in global emissions from presently underconsuming populations moving towards healthier diets. Source of the full article:

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