Would you be willing to forgo one full English breakfast and one doner kebab a week to protect the planet? It doesn’t seem like a lot to keep us on track for a greener, healthier United Kingdom (especially when Meat Free Monday has the perfect recipe to try instead).
Two fewer meat dishes a week – just 260g of animal protein – is what the Climate Change Committee is suggesting Britons could do without in its latest advice to the government on the legally binding carbon budgets that keep us steadily reducing our greenhouse gas emissions on the road to net zero by 2050.
The climate advisory body’s Seventh Carbon Budget, which runs from 2038 to 2042, advises having reduced the UK’s greenhouse gases emissions by then to 535 MtCO2e (metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent), which includes aviation and shipping. The CCC’s authors call it an “ambitious target, reflecting the importance of the task [but] deliverable, provided action is taking rapidly”.
The report’s “balanced pathway” envisages that, by 2040, we will not only be choosing more sustainable ways of getting around (walking, cycling and using public transport) but also – in a hopeful “continuation of existing trends” – piling our plates high with more sustainable food and turning away from environmentally damaging meat and dairy.
Helped by “greater choice and availability of plant-based foods”, the report says we will aim to see “a reduction in meat (especially beef and lamb) and dairy consumption, within overall healthier diets”. Our leaders can help by improving public information and awareness of more planet-friendly diets. In a case of “if you cook it, they will eat”, it adds: “Increased availability of plant-based products has been shown to increase sustained choices of plant-based foods”.
After a damning report by the CCC in 2023 said no plans had yet been set out “to support the public to shift to a lower-carbon diet”, this year’s budget again points out that “awareness is limited” about the emissions impact of eating meat and dairy, and that there is “unease and and limited trust around novel alternative proteins”.
We also need fewer methane-belching livestock. The report presents a scenario in which by 2040 the number of cattle and sheep will have dropped by more than a quarter (27 per cent) on 2023 levels, with meat consumption falling by 25 per cent on 2019 levels. While there was a positive 10 per cent fall in meat consumption between 2020 and 2022, the report’s authors say we will need to go “beyond the existing UK long-term trend [for] a gradual reduction in meat consumption”.
Environmental groups are also urging a quicker response and a speedier shift, pointing out that consumers are already dining differently but need help to go further. Andrew Stark, senior research and policy manager at Eating Better, said its polling “shows the public are changing their diets and want governments to go faster” and that the “government has an exciting opportunity to join up policies for British farmers to have a just transition and to ensure all citizens can afford and access healthy and sustainable diets”.
Ruth Westcott, climate emergency manager at Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, said the CCC was not recommending taking away the choice to eat meat “but we need to reduce how much meat and dairy we produce and eat to meet our climate obligations. It would do us the world of good for there to be more healthy and affordable options based around vegetables, pulses and other climate-friendly foods in shops and restaurants.”
Try Meat Free Monday’s Sticky Tofu Kebabs, or watch the how-to video.