Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK

• Published in: Climatic change Vol. 125; no. 2; pp. 179 - 192
• Main Authors: Scarborough, Peter, Appleby, Paul N, Mizdrak, Anja, Briggs, Adam D. M, Travis, Ruth C, Bradbury, Kathryn E, Key, Timothy J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer-Verlag 01.07.2014; Springer Netherlands; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Air pollution; Analysis of variance; Animal production; Animal-based foods; Atmospheric Sciences; Carbon dioxide; Climate change; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Climatology. Bioclimatology. Climate change; cohort studies; confidence interval; data collection; Diet; Diets; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Emissions; Environmental impact; Estimates; Exact sciences and technology; External geophysics; food frequency questionnaires; Foods; Global warming; Greenhouse effect; greenhouse gas emissions; Greenhouse gases; Meat; meat consumption; Meteorology; Plant-based foods; Recipes; Reduction; United Kingdom; Variance analysis; Vegan; Veganism; vegetarian diet; Vegetarianism; United Kingdom; Europe; Western Europe; Carbon Footprint; Daily Energy Intake; Food Code; Vegetarian Diet; Meat Diet; Emission inventory; Survey; Gas emission; Food production; diet; Comparative study; greenhouse gas
• ISSN: 0165-0009; 1573-1480
• DOI: 10.1007/s10584-014-1169-1

The production of animal-based foods is associated with higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than plant-based foods. The objective of this study was to estimate the difference in dietary GHG emissions between self-selected meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK. Subjects were participants in the EPIC-Oxford cohort study. The diets of 2,041 vegans, 15,751 vegetarians, 8,123 fish-eaters and 29,589 meat-eaters aged 20–79 were assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Comparable GHG emissions parameters were developed for the underlying food codes using a dataset of GHG emissions for 94 food commodities in the UK, with a weighting for the global warming potential of each component gas. The average GHG emissions associated with a standard 2,000 kcal diet were estimated for all subjects. ANOVA was used to estimate average dietary GHG emissions by diet group adjusted for sex and age. The age-and-sex-adjusted mean (95 % confidence interval) GHG emissions in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents per day (kgCO₂e/day) were 7.19 (7.16, 7.22) for high meat-eaters ( > = 100 g/d), 5.63 (5.61, 5.65) for medium meat-eaters (50-99 g/d), 4.67 (4.65, 4.70) for low meat-eaters ( < 50 g/d), 3.91 (3.88, 3.94) for fish-eaters, 3.81 (3.79, 3.83) for vegetarians and 2.89 (2.83, 2.94) for vegans. In conclusion, dietary GHG emissions in self-selected meat-eaters are approximately twice as high as those in vegans. It is likely that reductions in meat consumption would lead to reductions in dietary GHG emissions.