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

Li, Yanxian, He, Pan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1088-6290, Shan, Yuli, Li, Yu, Hang, Ye, Shao, Shuai, Ruzzenenti, Franco and Hubacek, Klaus 2024. Reducing climate change impacts from the global food system through diet shifts. Nature Climate Change 14 , pp. 943-953. 10.1038/s41558-024-02084-1

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Abstract

How much and what we eat and where it is produced can create huge differences in GHG emissions. On the basis of detailed household-expenditure data, we evaluate the unequal distribution of dietary emissions from 140 food products in 139 countries or areas and further model changes in emissions of global diet shifts. Within countries, consumer groups with higher expenditures generally cause more dietary emissions due to higher red meat and dairy intake. Such inequality is more pronounced in low-income countries. The present global annual dietary emissions would fall by 17% with the worldwide adoption of the EAT-Lancet planetary health diet, primarily attributed to shifts from red meat to legumes and nuts as principal protein sources. 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.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Earth and Environmental Sciences
Publisher:	Nature Research
ISSN:	1758-678X
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	21 August 2024
Date of Acceptance:	5 July 2024
Last Modified:	08 Oct 2024 11:40
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/171517

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