Sir, In these crucial weeks before the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December, it is good that you have devoted so much coverage in recent days to considering how agreement could be reached and some of the ways in which climate change policy could reduce emissions.

However, I did not, as your front- page headline (Oct 27) suggested, tell people to “give up meat to save the planet”. Nor did I, as your leading article (Oct 28) asserted, make a “demand for behavioural change”.

It is a fact that the production of meat can be relatively carbon-intensive because of the energy used to rear and feed the animals, and the methane emitted by livestock. I was not demanding that people become vegetarians, but instead suggested that they should be aware that the more meat that they eat, the higher the emissions of greenhouse gases that are implied by their diets; it is in this sense of lower emissions (and lower water use) that less meat is “better” for the planet.

As the prices of food, like most items that are consumed, do not yet reflect the real costs of future climate change impacts from emitting greenhouse gases during production, it is particularly important that people should be provided with some other indication of “carbon content”, just as they are given details about nutritional value or country of origin. For example, we surely now expect to be informed about the emissions of cars that we are able to buy.

It would be extremely counter-productive to try to dictate the choices that consumers can make. A sound democracy requires information on key issues, the availability of choice and strong public discussion. Thus people should have low-carbon alternatives among the products and services on offer to them, whether it is electricity, heating, transport or food, and they should be provided with the information that allows them to make informed decisions about all aspects of their consumption, not just what they eat.

Lord Stern of Brentford
Chairman, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment

Explore Letters

• Feedback