Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Herd of cows
Herd of cows - Credit: muha04 / DepositPhotos - License: DepositPhotos
Nature
Culture
Food
Climate change
global warming
plant-based diet
planetary health diet
meat
livestock farming
Leiden University
Zhongxiao Sun
China Agricultural University
Paul Behrens
Tuesday, 11 January 2022 - 19:10
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Plant based diet doubly good for climate: researchers

A mainly plant-based diet can lead to double climate gains, according to a group of international researchers, including from Leiden University. Eating meat causes relatively high CO2 emissions. However, the gain is not only in avoiding that. Agricultural land no longer needed for grazing animals and growing animal feed can be partly returned to its natural state. Plants and trees that grow on it then absorb carbon.

In this way, people could theoretically remove nearly 100 gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere this century, lead researcher Zhongxiao Sun of the China Agricultural University and his colleagues calculated. That equates to about three times the total global emissions. Or, as the researchers wrote in the scientific journal Nature Food, fourteen times the total emissions now attributed to agriculture.

Livestock farming requires a lot of space. According to the researchers, about 35 percent of the world's habitable land and 80 percent of all agricultural land is now used for it. The described benefits for the climate would be achieved if the populations of 54 wealthy countries were to switch to the "planetary health diet." This diet consists mainly of fruits and vegetables, combined with small amounts of meat and dairy. It is designed to be healthy for people and the planet.

"It is an excellent opportunity to limit further warming of the climate," said Leiden researcher Paul Behrens. "We don't have to be puristic. Just reducing animal food intake would help.'

Reporting by ANP

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Dutch parliamentarians support €57 rent reduction for low-income households
  • Mountain of waste growing in the streets of Utrecht as garbage worker strike continues
  • Festival ticket prices jump higher; Some events up 17% as Lowlands cost hits €300
  • Rutte: Not enough political support to force the king to pay taxes
  • Turkey summons Dutch ambassador to explain why Istanbul consulate was closed
  • The Netherlands moves into the top 10 on Economist's Democracy Index

Top stories

  • Dutch parliamentarians support €57 rent reduction for low-income households
  • European office to gather proof of war crimes in Ukraine will set up in The Hague
  • Nine suspects arrested in Netherlands for 50 ATM bombings in Germany
  • Amsterdam to ban some tour buses from city center from 2024
  • Police missed many signals in run-up to attorney, crime journalist's murders: report
  • Public transport strike: No trains running in Friesland, part of Groningen

© 2012-2023, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content