What Is a Climatarian Diet?

There are many benefits to adopting a climate-friendly diet. Consider these perks when deciding whether to change your eating habits.

It’s Better for the Environment

Food production is the largest cause of global environmental change and is responsible for up to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, per The Lancet report. Following a climatarian diet will almost certainly reduce these harmful emissions, Dr. Clark says. If everyone switched to a vegan diet, for example, we could cut food-related emissions by 70 percent by the year 2050, according to projections published in March 2016 in the journal Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers also predict that shifting to a more sustainable food system will reduce nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, biodiversity loss, and water and land use. Currently, agriculture occupies 40 percent of global land, while food production accounts for 70 percent of freshwater use, The Lancet report notes.

Your diet qualifies as climate-friendly if its carbon footprint equals less than 2,000 g of CO2 emissions per day, according to an article published in May 2019 in Environmental Science & Technology. For reference, following the U.S. dietary guidelines results in the highest carbon footprint (3.83 kilograms, or 3,830 g of CO2 per day) compared with recommended diets in Germany, India, the Netherlands, Oman, Thailand, and Uruguay, according to research published in March 2021 in Nutrition Journal.

Shifting to a healthy,…