LONDON, Sept 7: People should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change, the world’s leading authority on global warming has told The Observer. Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further.

His comments are the most controversial advice yet provided by the panel on how individuals can help tackle global warning.

Pachauri, who was re-elected the panel’s chairman for a second six-year term last week, said diet change was important because of the huge greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems — including habitat destruction — associated with rearing cattle and other animals. It was relatively easy to change eating habits, compared to changing means of transport, he said.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation has estimated that meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. These are generated during the production of animal feeds, for example, while ruminants, particularly cows, emit methane, which is 23 times more effective as a global warming agent than carbon dioxide.

The agency has also warned that meat consumption is set to double by the middle of the century.

“In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity,” said Pachauri. “Give up meat for one day (a week) initially, and decrease it from there,” said the Indian economist, who is a vegetarian.

However, he also stressed that other changes in lifestyle would help to combat climate change. “That’s what I want to emphasise: we really have to bring about reductions in every sector of the economy.”—Dawn/The Guardian News Service