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This week, the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) is being held in Poland.
While it’s established fact that raising animals for food produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, planes, and other forms of transportation combined, the menu at COP24 is surprisingly meat-heavy. About 22,000 delegates will be offered cheeseburgers, gnocchi with Parmesan and Parma ham, and beef with smoked bacon. According to nonprofits Farm Forward, Brighter Green, and the Center for Biological Diversity, only two vegan options are available.
An analysis of the menu conducted by the nonprofits found that production of the food from the 12-day conference could generate the same amount of greenhouse gas as burning 500,000 gallons of gasoline if all attendees chose meat-based dishes. This is the equivalent of flying 3,000 people from New York to Katowice.
The meat dishes offered at the conference generate over four times more greenhouse gas emissions on average than the vegetarian options offered. The two dairy-free, plant-based options generate one-tenth of the emissions of the meat-based options and less than half of the emissions of the vegetarian options with cheese.
Additionally, producing the meat dishes uses seven times more land and nearly twice as much water as producing the plant-based dishes. Considering the United Nations urged nations to reduce meat and dairy consumption to combat climate change in its own report released earlier this year, the menu at COP24 is baffling.
Stephanie Feldstein, director of the population and sustainability program at the Center for Biological Diversity, explains:
If the world leaders gathering in Poland hope to address the climate crisis, they need to tackle overconsumption of meat and dairy, starting with what’s on their own plates. That means transitioning the food served at international climate conferences to more plant-based options with smaller carbon footprints.
Bill Hare, climate scientist and climate analytics director, suggested that cutting back on meat and dairy consumption was a way for countries to significantly reduce their carbon emissions. But this isn’t the first time reducing consumption of animal products has been suggested as a way to help the planet.
A recent study from researchers at the University of Oxford found that ditching animal products could reduce your carbon footprint by 73 percent. In fact, researchers concluded that if everyone went vegan, global land use could be reduced by 75 percent.
Joseph Poore, lead author of the study, asserts:
A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use. It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car.
This reduction would be comparable to the size of the United States, China, Australia, and the whole European Union combined.
There is no such thing as “sustainable” meat, dairy, and eggs, and plant-based alternatives take a mere fraction of the resources to produce as their animal-based counterparts.
But a vegan diet isn’t just good for the planet—it also spares countless animals a lifetime of misery at factory farms. Pigs, cows, chickens, fish, and other farmed animals suffer horribly. From birth to death, these poor animals are caught in a nightmare: cruelly confined, brutally mutilated, and violently killed.
By switching to a compassionate, healthy vegan lifestyle, we not only spare animals from intense suffering and cruel exploitation but fight to save the planet.
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