Global Environmental Benefits of Plant-Based Diets: A Multi-Regional Input Output Analysis

Fabian Hafner, Stephan Pfister, Ashley Green, Livia Cabernard

The global food system, especially animal husbandry, is a major driver of negative environmental impacts. This paper investigates the potential of adopting more plant-based diets (vegan, vegetarian, no beef) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, land use and related biodiversity loss, and water stress within global food supply chains. This is achieved by combining Multi-regional Input Output (MRIO) data from EXIOBASE3 with nutritional data from FAOSTAT for 49 regions covering the globe and comparing the results to planetary boundaries. We find that a shift to a vegan diet has the potential to reduce GHG emissions by up to 61%, land use by 60%, and related biodiversity loss by 49%. The vegetarian and no beef scenarios have around half of those reduction potentials, while water stress is nearly constant for all scenarios. Adopting a more plant-based diet would allow to meet the food-specific 1.5°C climate target on a global scale but still exceed the planetary boundary for the biodiversity goal. Moreover, many high-income regions cannot reach an equitable level of emissions aligned with climate targets. Overall, transitioning towards more plant-based diets provides great levers to alleviate environmental stress and create a more sustainable and equitable food system, but further policy actions are imperative to meet biodiversity targets and ensure equity.