Protecting forests, changing diets, and altering farming methods could contribute around a quarter of the greenhouse gas cuts needed to avert the worst impacts of climate change, according to the United Nations' climate panel.
But the changes are unlikely to happen unless governments act to spur them along, the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released on Monday found.“We are in the early stages of climate and agriculture policy development, but we need to start with acknowledging the urgency of the challenge,” said Ben Lilliston, director of rural strategies and climate change for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
While the changes required in the agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors - dubbed AFOLU by climate specialists - would not cost much to implement, there is little momentum so far to trigger them, the report said. “Land provides us with so much, for example, food, nature, and our livelihoods,” said Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, vice chair of the IPCC working group that authored the report. “These competing demands have to be carefully managed.”The IPCC panel's initial report summary included a recommendation that consumers shift to plant-based diets and reduce their intake of meat, according to a draft seen by Reuters.
Asked about the changes, Joanna House, an expert on land use at the University of Bristol and an author of the report, said she could not comment on why the changes were made but said the issue of dietary changes is complex.
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