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2016-11-10 |

Climate tax on meat and dairy would cut emissions and save lives, study

Meat Higher meat prices would reduce consumption and cut emissions (Photo: CC0)

A climate tax on meat and dairy products could lead to lower emissions and save half a million lives a year, new research published in the journal Nature Climate Change has found. According to scientists at Oxford University, beef would have to be 40% more expensive globally to account for the greenhouse gas emissions caused by its production. The price of milk and other meats would need to increase by up to 20%, and the price of vegetable oils would also need to rise. The researchers have calculated that such price increases would lead to a 10% decrease in the consumption of food items that are high in emissions. This could save about one billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020, more emissions than are currently caused by global aviation. “Emissions pricing of foods would generate a much needed contribution of the food system to reducing the impacts of global climate change,” said lead author Dr Marco Springmann from the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food at the University of Oxford. “If you’d have to pay 40% more for your steak, you might choose to have it once a week instead of twice.” In this first global analysis of the issue, the researchers looked at different pricing models, including one in which all food items were priced in line with the emissions their production caused, and one in which the tax revenues were used to compensate consumers for higher food prices and to subsidise fruit and vegetable consumption. “Food prices are a sensitive topic,” said Dr Springmann. “We approached the design of climate policies for the food and agriculture system from a health perspective to find out whether the emissions of food production could be priced without putting peoples’ health at risk.” The scientists found that emissions pricing of foods, if properly designed, would be beneficial to human health in high-income, middle-income and most low-income countries and lead to half a million fewer deaths from chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, strokes and cancer. However, careful attention must be paid in low-income countries to make sure that climate taxes do not have a negative impact on poor people. In some countries, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia, higher food prices could reduce food availability and increase underweight-related deaths. Therefore, emissions pricing would need to be combined with income compensation and subsidies for fruit and vegetables. If properly designed, these policies would result in net positive health impacts in all 150 countries covered by the study due to a lower consumption of red meat, healthier diets and a reduction in the number of people who are overweight or obese. “So far, food production and consumption have been excluded from climate policies, in part due to concerns about the potential impact on food security,” said Dr Springmann. “Here we show that pricing foods according to their climate impacts could not only lead to lower emissions, but also to healthier diets in almost all countries around the world.” (ab)

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