COP26: More than expected, less than hoped.
Glasgow, Scotland — In response to a US and EU-led pledge to cut global methane emissions by 30 percent from their 2020 levels by 2030, Juan Pablo Osornio, Head of the Greenpeace Delegation at COP26, said:
“This initiative needs to be the start and not the finish of the ambition on cutting this potent greenhouse gas, which has 28 times the warming potential of CO2.
“The radical reductions we actually need can’t be achieved by tinkering around the edges.
“The IPCC says we need to cut all emissions in half by 2030 if we hope to keep global temperature rises within 1.5C. If we drastically slash fossil fuels we’d cut methane and carbon emissions at the same time, and have a much better chance of meeting that goal.
“And by not including meat reduction or pledges to change people’s diets in this commitment, governments are giving a free pass to Big Agriculture.
“All roads end up pointing to the need to eliminate fossil fuels from our energy system and phasing out industrial meat and dairy from our diets as soon as possible. This announcement dodges what’s needed.”
ENDS
Media Contact:
Marie Bout, Global Communications Strategist, Greenpeace International Political Unit, [email protected], +33 (0) 6 05 98 70 42
Greenpeace International Press Desk: [email protected], +31 (0) 20 718 2470 (available 24 hours)
Discussion
Hmm... so we need to end cattle ranching for meat and dairy because of the methane emissions from the cows? Odd.. considering that in the USA there is approx. 100m head of cattle, BUT numbers show as many as 90 million head of bison at one point, as many as 60 million head in the 1860s. So we replaced bison with cows basically. Meaning that going over 'industrial meat and dairy' is... well.... nearly pointless when the transportation and energy grids create literally orders of magnitude more pollutants that contribute to climate change. Pick your battles folks.