SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
'Less Meat, Less Heat': China's Plan to Drop Meat Consumption Gets Praise
New dietary guidelines would reduce the country's livestock-related carbon emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030
Jun 21, 2016
Climate advocates are praising the Chinese government's new dietary guidelines, which are designed to cut meat consumption in half. This would reduce the country's livestock-related carbon emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030.
Li Junfeng, director general of China's National Center on Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, said that if China's population of 1.3 billion took up the new guidelines, released once every 10 years, "it is expected that the livestock industry will transform and carbon emissions will be reduced."
The average person in China currently eats 63 kilograms (138 lbs) of meat yearly, which amounts to 28 percent of the world's meat. The Chinese Nutrition Society (CNS), in partnership with the advocacy groups WildAid, Climate Nexus, and My Plate My Planet, is now advocating that consumers reduce that to 27 kg (39 lbs). That would prompt a 1.5 percent drop in global emissions, more than France and Belgium's entire yearly output combined.
Notably, the average person in the U.S. eats twice as much meat as in China.
"Tackling climate change involves scientific judgement, political decisions, entrepreneurial support, but at last, it still relies on involvement of the general public to change the consumption behavior in China," Li said. "Every single one of us has to believe in the low-carbon concept and slowly adapt to it."
To encourage Chinese citizens to respond to the campaign, the CNS and WildAid have enlisted celebrities such as actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, American film director James Cameron, and Chinese actress and singer Li Bingbing to spread the word through public service commercials and other advertisements.
The campaign, launched with the tagline " Less Meat, Less Heat, More Life," comes after more than 170 nations signed the Paris Agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions and keep global temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius. It also coincides with a report by WildAid showing that livestock emissions account for 14.5 percent of total global greenhouse gas output.
"China's move to cut meat consumption in half would not only have a huge impact on public health, it is also a massive leadership step towards drastically reducing carbon emissions and reaching the goals set out in the Paris Agreement," Cameron said. "Livestock emits more than all transportation combined. Reducing demand for animal-based foods is essential if we limit global warming to two degrees Celsius as agreed at COP21."
Climate Nexus and My Plate My Planet will distribute English-language versions of the ads in the U.S., where there are currently no limits on meat consumption.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Climate advocates are praising the Chinese government's new dietary guidelines, which are designed to cut meat consumption in half. This would reduce the country's livestock-related carbon emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030.
Li Junfeng, director general of China's National Center on Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, said that if China's population of 1.3 billion took up the new guidelines, released once every 10 years, "it is expected that the livestock industry will transform and carbon emissions will be reduced."
The average person in China currently eats 63 kilograms (138 lbs) of meat yearly, which amounts to 28 percent of the world's meat. The Chinese Nutrition Society (CNS), in partnership with the advocacy groups WildAid, Climate Nexus, and My Plate My Planet, is now advocating that consumers reduce that to 27 kg (39 lbs). That would prompt a 1.5 percent drop in global emissions, more than France and Belgium's entire yearly output combined.
Notably, the average person in the U.S. eats twice as much meat as in China.
"Tackling climate change involves scientific judgement, political decisions, entrepreneurial support, but at last, it still relies on involvement of the general public to change the consumption behavior in China," Li said. "Every single one of us has to believe in the low-carbon concept and slowly adapt to it."
To encourage Chinese citizens to respond to the campaign, the CNS and WildAid have enlisted celebrities such as actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, American film director James Cameron, and Chinese actress and singer Li Bingbing to spread the word through public service commercials and other advertisements.
The campaign, launched with the tagline " Less Meat, Less Heat, More Life," comes after more than 170 nations signed the Paris Agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions and keep global temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius. It also coincides with a report by WildAid showing that livestock emissions account for 14.5 percent of total global greenhouse gas output.
"China's move to cut meat consumption in half would not only have a huge impact on public health, it is also a massive leadership step towards drastically reducing carbon emissions and reaching the goals set out in the Paris Agreement," Cameron said. "Livestock emits more than all transportation combined. Reducing demand for animal-based foods is essential if we limit global warming to two degrees Celsius as agreed at COP21."
Climate Nexus and My Plate My Planet will distribute English-language versions of the ads in the U.S., where there are currently no limits on meat consumption.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Climate advocates are praising the Chinese government's new dietary guidelines, which are designed to cut meat consumption in half. This would reduce the country's livestock-related carbon emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030.
Li Junfeng, director general of China's National Center on Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, said that if China's population of 1.3 billion took up the new guidelines, released once every 10 years, "it is expected that the livestock industry will transform and carbon emissions will be reduced."
The average person in China currently eats 63 kilograms (138 lbs) of meat yearly, which amounts to 28 percent of the world's meat. The Chinese Nutrition Society (CNS), in partnership with the advocacy groups WildAid, Climate Nexus, and My Plate My Planet, is now advocating that consumers reduce that to 27 kg (39 lbs). That would prompt a 1.5 percent drop in global emissions, more than France and Belgium's entire yearly output combined.
Notably, the average person in the U.S. eats twice as much meat as in China.
"Tackling climate change involves scientific judgement, political decisions, entrepreneurial support, but at last, it still relies on involvement of the general public to change the consumption behavior in China," Li said. "Every single one of us has to believe in the low-carbon concept and slowly adapt to it."
To encourage Chinese citizens to respond to the campaign, the CNS and WildAid have enlisted celebrities such as actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, American film director James Cameron, and Chinese actress and singer Li Bingbing to spread the word through public service commercials and other advertisements.
The campaign, launched with the tagline " Less Meat, Less Heat, More Life," comes after more than 170 nations signed the Paris Agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions and keep global temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius. It also coincides with a report by WildAid showing that livestock emissions account for 14.5 percent of total global greenhouse gas output.
"China's move to cut meat consumption in half would not only have a huge impact on public health, it is also a massive leadership step towards drastically reducing carbon emissions and reaching the goals set out in the Paris Agreement," Cameron said. "Livestock emits more than all transportation combined. Reducing demand for animal-based foods is essential if we limit global warming to two degrees Celsius as agreed at COP21."
Climate Nexus and My Plate My Planet will distribute English-language versions of the ads in the U.S., where there are currently no limits on meat consumption.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.