According to a recent report from the United Nations on the effects of climate change on land, global issues of global warming or food security, health and biodiversity can only be challenged if there is a change in the manner in which the world manages land, produces and eats food.

Unprecedented rates of land and water use have been the result of changes in consumption patterns and growth in global population, said the report. While giving a call for ringing in significant changes in the manner of farming and eating habits, the report did not explicitly propose a complete stoppage to meat consumption.

The report said that several million square kilometres of land could be freed up by 2050 by making some changes in people’s diet by including of more plant-based foods and sustainably sourced animal food. If that is achieved the report went on to state, it would potentially reduce 0.7-8.0 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent every year. This report was published by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“Delaying action … could result in some irreversible impacts on some ecosystems, which in the longer term has the potential to lead to substantial additional emissions from ecosystems that would accelerate global warming,” the report said.

This report was finalized by members of the IPCC in Geneva, Switzerland, this week and this report is intended to be a guide for governments slated to meet in Chile later this year to discuss the ways for implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement as well as ways to prevent a fast climate change.

A banner outside the meeting in Geneva, reading “Less Meat=Less Heat. Climate Action NOW”, was unveiled by Greenpeace activists just before the release of the report.

There has already been an increase 1.53 degrees Celsius in land surface air temperature since the pre-industrial period which is almost double of the global average temperature (0.87 C), said the report which runs into almost 60 pages.

In addition to land degradation and desertification, the increasing temperature has also been the case of more heatwaves, droughts and heavy precipitation. While agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of freshwater use, more than 70 per cent of the global, ice-free land surface is affected directly by human usage.

Between 2007 and 2016, 23 per cent of total net man made greenhouse gas emissions were accounted for by human activities of agriculture, forestry and other land use. That number increases to 37 per cent when accounting for pre- and post-production activity in the food system.

“This is a perfect storm. Limited land, an expanding human population, and all wrapped in a suffocating blanket of climate emergency,” Dave Reay, professor of carbon management at the University of Edinburgh said, commenting on the report.

There would be need for making rapid and significant changes is the global leaders wanted to keep the rise in temperature of the Earth to 1.5 degrees Celsius instead of the 2C target that had been agreed upon in the Paris Agreement, the IPCC had already warned in its first special report last year.

(Adapted from ChannelNewsAsia.com)

Categories: Creativity, Economy & Finance, Strategy, Sustainability