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ScienceDaily_2014 12811.txt

#Meeting climate targets may require reducing meat, dairy consumptiongreenhouse gas emissions from food production may threaten the UN climate target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius according to research at Chalmers University of Technology Sweden. On Monday 31 march the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presents their report on the impacts of climate change. Carbon dioxide emissions from the energy and transportation sectors currently account for the largest share of climate pollution. However a study from Chalmers now shows that eliminating these emissions would not guarantee staying below the UN limit. Emissions from agriculture threaten to keep increasing as global meat and dairy consumption increases. If agricultural emissions are addressed not nitrous oxide from fields and methane from livestock may double by 2070. This alone would make meeting the climate target essentially impossible. We have shown that reducing meat and dairy consumption is key to bringing agricultural climate pollution down to safe levels says Fredrik Hedenus one of the study authors. Broad dietary change can take a long time. We should already be thinking about how we can make our food more climate friendly. By 2070 there will be many more of us on this planet. Diets high in meat milk cheese and other food associated with high emissions are expected to become more common. Because agricultural emissions are difficult and expensive to reduce via changes in production methods or technology these growing numbers of people eating more meat and dairy entail increasing amounts of climate pollution from the food sector. These emissions can be reduced with efficiency gains in meat and dairy production as well as with the aid of new technology says co-author Stefan Wirsenius. But the potential reductions from these measures are limited fairly and will probably not suffice to keep us within the climate limit if meat and dairy consumption continue to grow. Beef and lamb account for the largest agricultural emissions relative to the energy they provide. By 2050 estimates indicate that beef and lamb will account for half of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions while only contributing 3 percent of human calorie intake. Cheese and other dairy products will account for about one quarter of total agricultural climate pollution. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Chalmers University of Technology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h

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