UK climate leadership requires food policy change

Here, Alistair Currie, public affairs and policy manager at The Vegan Society, makes a statement on the new ‘new era of British leadership’ pledge made at COP31.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has ’pledged a new era of British leadership’ on climate change over the next decade.  

If the prime minister is serious about his COP31 pledge, the UK government must implement the proposals it has so far ignored from the Climate Change Committee (CCC) to adopt policies to cut meat and dairy consumption and the number of farmed animals in the UK.  

If, as widely expected, the government waters down its Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate and gives the go-ahead to the Rosebank oil field, the urgency of action will be even greater. 

The Balanced Pathway in the CCC's Seventh Carbon Budget proposes that by 2040, 25% of meat (30% of red meat) and 20% of dairy is replaced with lower carbon foods, compared to 2019 consumption levels. They also recommend a 38% reduction in cattle and sheep numbers between 2023 and 2050. The committee is clear that reducing numbers of farmed animals is the single biggest lever in the Balanced Pathway for cutting emissions from agriculture and freeing land for carbon sequestration. Diet change is a critical part of that action. 

The policies needed to bring about this change are practical, achievable and in line with consistent evidence that people want to eat more healthily and sustainably. The Vegan Society supports the ‘Ten Point Plan for Plant Rich Diets’, which has now been endorsed by more than 60 organisations and experts in the UK. The plan shows how production and consumption of plant based foods in the UK can be supported and encouraged by the government, increasing choice, accessibility and benefits for our economy and farmers. 

A transition to a plant rich diet would not only reduce GHG emissions; the health impacts of more people going vegan or plant based would save huge amounts of money for the NHS and improve the UK’s food security. It would also save more animals from enduring the industrial scale suffering in our increasing factory farm based food system. 

The government has already been provided with a ready made framework for action on plant based foods by the CCC. It has so far turned its back on that advice but the Prime Minister’s speech today at COP31 must herald a change in policy.  

The government must put dietary change back on the table, now.