Veggly and Abillion founders, Alex Felipelli and Vikas Garg respectively, calls for the UN to ban meat at COP27, and all future climate summits
The eyes of the world are focused on COP27 this week for a good reason – our political leaders, top scientists, businesses leaders, charities, and activists are together in Egypt to collaborate, develop and discover new ways to solve the worsening climate crisis.
The fate of the world is literally on the line. Whether you believe in the ability of climate summits or the UN to address the crisis, we should all be hoping, collectively, that the summit provides success and momentum for climate action. The impact of the work we put in today will be felt in the decades to come on a global scale. Now is the time for governments, businesses, communities and individuals to realize how crucial this issue is, and how we don’t have time to kick the can down the road and expect future leaders to solve the problem. It’ll be too late by then. As the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has said: “the world is on the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator”. Clearly, time is of the essence…
So, if we’re going to put our faith in our leaders at COP27, we should expect them to set a positive example on living sustainably, right? Surely we should be expecting them to at least follow a plant-based diet while they’re at the summit, right? Even if they’re not full time herbivores, you would hope that they would want to at least show the world that they understand the huge role animal-based food plays in global warming…
Well, apparently that’s still too much to ask. I was disappointed to see this week that ‘VIPs’ at COP27 have been dining on beef, chicken, fish, dairy products and more! Despite peer-reviewed science that shows clearly that we must move away from animal products if we are to create a sustainable, low emissions food system, they seemingly don’t care or don’t know. I’m not sure which is worse…
It simply doesn’t make any sense. Not only are they choosing animal-based food options that are far more environmentally damaging than the plant-based options, they are also setting a terrible example when it comes to wider climate action and faith in the summit to tackle the problem. Why should anyone think COP27 will be a success if so many of the people we’re counting on to make the changes needed can’t make such a relatively easy switch.
But this begs another question: why would the summit serve these options in the first place? How hard would it be to make the entire event plant-based? Relatively speaking, it wouldn’t be that much of a challenge. If anything, it would be easier. It is for this reason that my colleagues and I are calling for a ban on meat at all future climate summits. We can’t allow this oxymoronic behaviour to continue. You can’t say you’re totally committed to saving the planet if you’re choosing to provide and eat products that are so damaging to our ecosystems.
I can only imagine that it’s for reasons like this – there must be many – that Greta Thunberg has elected not to go this year. She has seen through the contradictions and cognitive dissonance of so many people at these summits, and has therefore decided to focus her energy elsewhere and set a positive example. Of course, Greta is vegan, so that helps!
Let’s just hope the current organisers and attendees of COP27 realise the benefits of plant-based living as well, before it’s too late…
Alex Felipelli and Vikas Garg
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Put compassion into action and go vegan–good for the planet the animals and us <3.
it’s high time environmentalists understood the harmrful impact of addictions to unnecessary cruelty based ‘food’