CLIMATE CHANGE

With the talks and awareness on climate change trending now, I think it's important to note these facts:

1). Humanity’s emissions are approaching critical mass. Governments know this. Getting every country in the world to agree on something is not an easy task, but international negotiators recognise that in order to avoid climate calamity, global temperatures must not rise by more than 2C.

2). Food and climate change are inextricably linked: global warming and changes in rainfall have a major impact on our food security, and our diets are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural emissions are thought to account for around 30% of global emissions, with livestock responsible for half of these. Although there is a role for improved farming practices to reduce emission intensity, dietary patterns will need to change to avoid catastrophic consequences.At first sight, adopting a diet that is both sustainable and healthy may seem hard. Just determining the exact carbon footprint of different foods is a challenge. How is the food grown? What land is used? How is it transported and packaged? And there are other important considerations: food production is responsible for about 70% of all human water use, is the leading cause of global deforestation and biodiversity loss, and rearing livestock accounts for 30% of the planet’s land surface. Is it even possible to grow enough sustainable calories to feed the world?

But it doesn’t need to be that complicated. For example, ruminants (such as beef and lamb) dominate emissions from livestock and are high in unhealthy saturated fats; conversely, fruit and vegetables are relatively low in greenhouse gas emissions and provide significant health benefits. Therefore, eating more fruit and vegetables but less beef and lamb is likely to be both healthier and more sustainable.

And small changes can make a big difference. Producing 1kg of beef requires 15,000 litres of water, 30kg of carbon dioxide or equivalent greenhouse gas emissions, and 5m2 of land. Compare this with potatoes, for example, where producing 1kg requires just 290 litres of water, 0.5kg of carbon dioxide emissions and 0.6m2 of land.

A few to mention out of so many. The awareness campaign in Africa is at a very low rate. The rich countries should help developing and under developing nations with funds to ensure sustainability by making use of cleaner energy. Then again to the issue of meat, I guess it will be a tough one to handle, but with proper orientation I hope it will be contained.

Good morning.