Following the example of France and Great Britain, there is now also a Citizens’ Climate Council in Germany. The task of the Citizens’ Council, which consists of 160 randomly selected citizens, is to jointly discuss how “compliance with the German climate protection targets can be achieved fairly for all”. They will be accompanied by “leading experts from science and business”. Dr Ulrike Eberle from corsus is one of these experts. She will speak this evening at the Citizens’ Council on food and climate change and recommendations for sustainable nutrition.

Ulrike has been researching and advising on sustainable food systems for many years. The research project “Ernährungswende“, which she led from 2002 to 2005, was the first in Germany to comprehensively define sustainable nutrition and to develop strategies for a socio-ecological transformation. Nutrition and climate protection are closely linked and we can contribute a lot to climate protection with our nutrition. Our consumption of animal products such as meat, sausages and meat products as well as eggs, milk and dairy products plays a key role here.

Per capita and year, we produce on average more than 2 tonnes of greenhouse gases for our diet. Two-thirds of this is due to animal products. If we were to implement the dietary recommendations of the Eat Lancet Commission for a planetary Health Diet that benefits our health and our planet, greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by almost a quarter – without having to completely give up meat and animal products. We would then only eat them to an extent that is beneficial to our health. Because today we definitely eat too many animal products. If we ate vegetarian or vegan food within the recommendations, the impact on the climate would be reduced by as much as 40 percent. These are the results of a new study conducted by corsus on behalf of WWF Germany.

When it comes to nutrition, however, it is important to keep other sustainability aspects in mind as well. After all, a sustainable diet is environmentally friendly and promotes health, is ethically responsible, is designed to be appropriate for everyday life and enables socio-cultural diversity. Therefore, WWF has translated the Eat Lancet recommendations into very practical everyday recipes for a whole week’s diet – from breakfast, to snacks, lunch and dinner. The result: it would be quite delicious to follow the recommendations!