This year’s Cop28 conference is likely to feature “mostly vegan” food on its menu, a move which follows backlash from vegetarian groups last year.
Speaking to Plant Based News youth activist and campaigns policy director at ProVeg Lana Weidgenant said: “We are delighted that the COP presidency is potentially going to prize plant-based food at the world’s most significant climate summit this year”.
“It will send a clear and – and tasty – message out to delegates from nearly 200 countries of the importance of adopting more plant-based diets for tackling climate change”.
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Ahead of last year’s COP27 conference which took place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, organisations including ProVeg International and the Vegetarian Society called on the conference to take a look at the emissions impact of their menus.
“Despite accounting for approximately a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, the environmental impact of food systems has never been seriously discussed at previous editions of COP. This year, food systems are included in the programme – if only marginally,” read a statement from the society at the time.
“However, while it’s crucial that food system sustainability feature on the COP agenda the food offered at the conference itself needs to be sustainable, too.”
The agenda at Cop28
At the COP28 conference food is set to be a major issue on the agenda, with around a third of global food production at risk from the climate crisis.
Over 70 food companies and NGOs wrote to world leaders, urging them to create a food systems approach that looks at emissions “beyond agricultural production” to consider “food waste consumption biodiversity loss and use change”.
More widely, the Cop28 conference has attracted controversy as it is headed by the owner of Sultan Al Jaber who is the chief executive of ADNOC Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, which is one of the world’s biggest oil producers.
The Cop28 president has also been accused of greenwashing after it was reported that edits had been made to Al Jaber’s Wikipedia page in order to embellish his image.
