World leaders sign for Carbon Pricing Meat in Glasgow
Glasgow, Wednesday 3 November 2021 –
Today, at "Finance Day' during the climate conference in Glasgow, the government leaders of nine countries signed an environmental tax on meat. At the table were the leaders of countries with the highest per capita meat consumption. Whether this desired vision will become reality, remains to be seen. Behind the masks were campaigners of the global TAPP Coalition (True Animal Protein Price Coalition), which believes that a meat tax or 'carbon pricing' of meat and dairy should not be an elephant in the room during this climate summit. If global animal protein consumption per country and population continues to increase, it will become impossible to prevent global temperatures from rising to dangerous levels. For an impactful agreement in Glasgow, a meat tax or 'carbon pricing' of meat and dairy is necessary. A few UN Member States already announced their support for a carbon tax on meat and dairy in the COP26 Summit, including UK minister Eustice and New Zealand, who will start carbon pricing meat and dairy by 2025. https://tappcoalition.eu/nieuws/16831/increasing-number-of-countries-start-taxing-meat-and-dairy-
The letter that the coalition sent this week to 50 world leaders such as Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden was signed by 95 other organizations representing more than 5,000 companies and NGOs in over 100 countries. The letter can be read here: https://futurefoodprice.org
From left to right: ‘Jair Bolsonaro’, ‘Vladimir Putin’, ‘Mark Rutte’, ‘Angela Merkel’, ‘Justin Trudeau’, ‘Boris Johnson’, ‘Xi Jinping’, ‘Joe Biden’ en ‘Emmanuel Macron’. Photographer: Lorenzo di Pietro. Later 3rd November, the 'World Leaders' were found in Glasgow singing 'Old McDonald had a farm' together, with lyrics: 'blabla' :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNz_GM8a9tU
In a COP26. facilitated press conference 31st October, Jeroom Remmers, director TAPP Coalition have a press conference about the elephant in the room: reducing meat and dairy overconsumption in rich countries to realise the Paris Climate Agreement goals. Video recording:
https://unfccc-cop26.streamworld.de/webcast/true-animal-protein-price-coalitiontapp-cop26-and-
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkrZweSI-Jo&ab_channel=TAPPCoalition
According to FAO, per capita meat consumption levels are highest in the USA, at 124 kg meat/year, followed by Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Brazil, Spain, Israel, Portugal, Poland and Germany in the top 10 meat eaters. List of 50 countries with highest meat consumption (FAO) in: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/meat-supply-per-person.
Article about the Carbon Pricing Food Coalition and need for meat taxes to realise UN climate goals: https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/should-unsustainable-food-be-taxed.htm
Meat and dairy responsible for nearly 20% of all greenhouse gases worldwide
Meat and dairy related GHG-emissions are as much as all CO2-emissions from the US and Russia combined, or all CO2-emissions from England, France, Germany, Poland, South Korea, Australia, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, South Africa, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Iran. A UN report wrote that 34 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions is related to the food system [2]. Another report from Illinois University [3] recently found that nearly 60% of food related greenhouse gas emissions are from meat (and dairy), which equals with 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“The fact that meat and dairy cause 20% of global GHG-emissions is a very good reason to start taxing meat and dairy, to reduce (over)consumption in rich countries and reduce emissions related to meat and dairy,” said prof. Vellinga, Chair of True Animal Protein Price Coalition (TAPP). “If governments don’t tax meat and dairy, consumption will rise and in 2050 80 percent of global GHG-emissions will come from meat and dairy alone” (see graphic below). TAPP Coalition is a new global NGO asking EU governments and the EU Commission to start taxing meat and dairy and reduce taxes for healthy food. They successfully petitioned the EU Parliament to include an amendment to the Green Deal for Food on October 19th, asking for a 0% VAT tax on healthy food and the highest VAT tariff for food products with negative impacts on climate or public health (like red and processed meat).
The open letter to 50 presidents is signed mostly by organizations in 18 European countries, but also in the USA (11), South America (6), Africa (3), China (3), rest of Asia (6), Australia/New Zealand (6), and 19 international organizations, who represent 5000 companies and NGO’s. Signatories include Greenpeace Sweden, Ecopreneur.eu (3000 businesses in 7 EU countries), Triodos Bank (6 European countries), BioSuperMarkt Germany, Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation (31 countries), Youth Climate Save (80 countries), YOUNGO (Agri-Youth Constituency to UNFCCC), and Youth for Climate and Fridays for Future in different countries. The Open Letter is an initiative of True Animal Protein Price Coalition (9 countries), based in Amsterdam (The Netherlands).
More info: Jeroom Remmers, director TAPP Coalition, info@tappcoalitie.nl 0031 6 22 40 77 12
About the TAPP Coalition
The True Animal Protein Price Coalition, is a new international organization based in Amsterdam, with 60 partners (eg. farmers, youth, food companies, health-, environmental- and animal welfare groups). We are committed to policy advocacy for paying the 'real' price of food, including the costs for the environment, health and animal welfare, starting with meat and dairy. The revenues of a higher, fair meat price can be used for three things:
· Payments to farmers for sustainable agriculture, climate, nature and animal welfare.
· Reduction of VAT or subsidies on vegetables, fruit, nuts, potatoes, plant-based meat.
· Compensation of lower income groups for the higher price of meat.
What have we achieved in the past year?
· EU Commission Farm to Fork Strategy: EU tax system and food prices should reflect the real costs of pollution
· Dutch government proposal for true pricing meat presented to Dutch parliament
· True meat prices in the EU welcomed by EU-commission and EU-consumer organisation BEUC
More info: https://.tappcoalition.eu/nieuws
Press conference 31 October TAPP Coalition at blue zone COP26 Glasgow:
Video recording: https://unfccc-cop26.streamworld.de/webcast/true-animal-protein-price-coalitiontapp-cop26-and-
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkrZweSI-Jo&ab_channel=TAPPCoalition
This TAPP Coalition press release is part of the COP26 Climate Summit press releases of 3rd November 2021: https://unfccc.int/cop26/media-advisories-and-press-releases#eq-7
Attachments:
1) 9 Presidents signing for a meat tax 3rd November 2021 at COP26 Glasgow
2) Graphic meat consumption per capita levels (top 50 countries)
2) COP26 Press conference presentation recording at COP26, Blue Zone (31/10/21) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkrZweSI-Jo&ab_channel=TAPPCoalition
3) Recordings of presentation TAPP Coalition Glasgow Event: Carbon Pricing Meat & Dairy: The Elephant in the room in COP26 (and Panel discussion on carbon pricing policies)
Start Time: Nov 1, 2021 11:28 AM
Access Passcode: W+$Gxq4G