The Meat And Dairy Industry Is Surpassing 80% Of The EU's Methane Footprint
Scientists are waiting for Governments to put plans into action!
I know there will be some reading this whose mouths water at the thought of a juicy beef burger. But what if I told you that the industry producing the burgers you're longing for contributes massively to climate change?
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and Changing Markets Foundation recently gathered data on emissions from five meat and ten dairy businesses. The data showed that their emissions exceeded 80% of the European Union's methane footprint, surpassing some companies in larger countries like Australia, Canada, and Russia. Furthermore, these 15 meat and dairy businesses illustrate 11.1% of the total livestock-related methane worldwide, summoning 'urgent and ambitious legislation to address the significant climate impacts of global meat and dairy corporations.
The Global Methane Assessment reported an estimated 40-45% of global emissions must be decreased by 2030 - this move is crucial to achieving 'least-cost pathways that limit global warming to 1.5°C'. However, although over 100 governments have signed up for the COP26 Global Methane Pledge, scientists say it doesn't amount to what they believe is needed.
"(The pledge) commits its signatories to only 30 percent reductions by 2030 from a 2020 baseline as opposed to the 40-45 percent needed to prevent temperature overshoot." - the report says. Additionally, it states that although 'regulating the livestock industry's methane footprint would critically help bridge the gap', - the majority of the 125 countries signed have yet to outline methods to tackle the issue.
The director of the IATP's European office, Shefali Sharma, told the Guardian that the best possible way to diminish these emissions is to STOP FACTORY FARMING! "This just blew my mind – We can't continue to have this handful of companies controlling this many animals." In addition to this, she acknowledged the benefits of vegan and vegetarianism but added that "We're not saying people need to go vegan or vegetarian. We're just saying we need to do it better."
Rather than governments expecting these big corporations to 'voluntarily change their mass industrial animal agriculture model. The recommendation is "Governments must lead in facilitating such a transition: Regulating the livestock industry's numerous environmental and social impacts and ensuring that these companies do not transfer all the risks of the transition onto farmers. - Farmers within and outside these corporate supply chains have a critical role to play in a sequenced, deliberate, and just transition of mass industrial livestock production towards livestock-raising systems that are healthy for the planet and people."
It's a no-brainer...cut down or contribute to the issue? I know what I would choose!
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