What we choose to eat in a day is motivated by many factors; availability to cook, cravings, health choices and ethical reasons... But have you ever thought about the climate impact of your food choices? Why does climate impact matter, we hear you say? Well, because it is getting hot in here. And a not so fun fact is that the food industry alone accounts for more than one quarter of all global greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
Here at Klimato, the company behind the carbon footprint calculations and climate labelled menus at COP26, we aim to educate people about the climate impact of food and how to eat within the planetary boundaries. Before we dive into a climate-friendly vegan meal plan, there is one climate lingo term you need to master – CO2e.
CO2e (stands for carbon dioxide equivalents) is a combined unit of all greenhouse gas emissions related to producing food, so essentially the CO2e tells you how big the climate impact of a certain dish is. A higher CO2e value means a higher amount of emissions and thus worse from a climate point of view.
This daily meal plan comes out at a carbon footprint of 1.4kg CO2e, which fits in with the recommended 11kg CO2e weekly carbon budget for food.