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The food we eat is a crucial piece of the puzzle when it comes to tackling climate change.
The Climate Change Committee includes diet change as a key part of the pathway towards a lower carbon future, while the UK’s National Food Strategy recommended a 30% reduction in meat consumption by 2032 to achieve a more sustainable food system. Reducing meat and dairy consumption alongside other diet-related choices, such as buying local produce, and reducing food waste all play a role in this transition.
While there have been notable shifts in recent years – meat consumption in the UK, for instance, has hit an all time low – there’s still a long way to go to bring about wider changes in the culture of food.
This is complexified by the myriad range of factors that play a role in how people engage with food – from gender, to costs, to the physical places we make food choices, to cultural influences and deeply held worldviews. So, it’s no surprise that food can often be seen as an personal, emotional, and sometimes politically toxic subject.
Yet while a vegan or vegetarian diet may not be right for everyone – what’s clear is that there is an ‘appetite’ for change.
Opinion data shows that large numbers of people are willing to buy local produce and reduce their food waste. Policies that can help lower food-related emissions – including better food labelling and even taxes on meat and dairy – tend to receive more support than opposition. And there are a range of examples where people-focused campaigns and initiatives have been effective in reducing the impact of diets.
This topic thread was produced in collaboration with the Centre for Climate and Social Transformations (CAST).
According to Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) latest carbon budget, a range of low-carbon choices will form part of a “balanced pathway” towards net zero – with food and diet changes making “smaller, but important contributions” to this transition. Household low-carbon choices contribute to one-third of emissions reduction in 2040, while a shift in average meat and dairy consumption are anticipated to make up 6% of these household emissions reductions. The CCC note that:
“By 2040, 25% of meat (30% of red meat) and 20% of dairy is replaced with lower-carbon foods, compared to 2019 consumption levels”
Drawing on evidence from a Citizens’ Panel, which was convened as part of the report, the CCC found that:
Interestingly, much of the news coverage of the Carbon Budget focused on diet shifts, despite a greater emphasis on other measures. (Electrification and low-carbon electricity supply make up the largest share of emissions reductions in the CCC’s pathway – 60% by 2040).
A three-month online research and engagement project conducted by Hubbub worked with 175 UK homeowners (followed by polling of 501 UK homeowners) to understand how to support UK households in the transition to net zero.
On diets and food, the work found people’s motivations involve a mix of considerations about health, costs and taste. Health was the biggest priority when it came to diet, but people also reported cutting down on meat due to increased costs.
When it came to tackling food waste, the expert advice and engagement offered to households helped to drive meaningful changes. By engaging in the project, 75% (130) of 175 Household participants said they felt more confident about reducing and preventing food waste at home.
More widely, the work suggests that further measures are needed to enable households to buy more loose fruit and vegetables, and increase the range of vegetarian choices available; while in terms of communication and engagement, the report suggests there is a need reframe meat reduction more positively.
Several key barriers around changing food policy in the UK have been highlighted in a report drawing on interviews with former prime ministers, health secretaries and other senior ministers. While the piece focuses largely on the obesity crisis, its implications are relevant in the context of the climate crisis.
In terms of barriers to widespread dietary changes, the high profile interviewees argue that:
The report goes on to offer practical advice on how today’s politicians can drive meaningful change in food policy:
Overall meat consumption in the UK has fallen by 15% in a decade. This is largely due to people taking smaller servings, according to a study conducted from 2008 to 2019 by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of Edinburgh.
Researchers found that men and people from poorer backgrounds, who typically eat more meat, were more likely to have cut their consumption by switching to smaller portions. Meanwhile women and wealthier people were more likely to stop eating meat completely.
However, consumption of white meat has risen amongst the British public, with chicken and pork increasingly considered healthier than red meat.
Researchers at the centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) have found widespread public support for low-carbon lifestyles. In workshops, people explored visions of an ideal 1.5°C future:
However, common ‘narratives of delay’ also punctuated these positive visions, stemming from what the authors identified as three emotional defense mechanisms:
1) Overconfidence in current actions (thinking that small changes have more impact than they actually do)
2) Defensiveness over radical change (despite many lifestyle changes requiring only moderate adjustments for many)
3) Dejection at the scale of the challenge (with fatalism acting as a demotivator for making lifestyle changes)
The paper concludes that:
“Rethinking strategies for public engagement with climate action will be an essential step towards creating a positive, ambitious, fair, sustainable vision of the future that is desperately needed as part of a people-centred approach to tackling climate change”
Polling by Ipsos shows that slightly more people support (42%) than oppose (38%) having ‘higher taxes on red meat and dairy products’ to encourage the adoption of sustainable diets. When people were asked to consider the possible benefit of paying less for plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, and bread, the support rose to more than half (55%).
However, highlighting the personal costs – that it could mean paying more personally for meat and dairy products – weakened support (37%) and increased opposition (45%).
While support for higher taxes on meat and dairy tax remains substantial overall, the data shows that support for meat has dropped slightly since 2022, when the polling was last carried out.
Overall, the polling highlights the importance of costs and fairness in the framing and messaging of diet changes.
Research by Climate Outreach, CAST and Hubbub tested whether different narratives around food, delivered by trusted messengers in a Facebook group, could encourage people to try vegetarian diets and eat less meat and dairy.
The research focused on a segment of the population identified as ‘Loyal Nationals’ – people who are proud to be British, lean to the political right on social issues and are likely to describe themselves as working class. They are distrustful of elites and worried about changes to their way of life.
Using climate change as the main message to encourage dietary changes wasn’t always effective with this group. Loyal Nationals related more to messages around improving health and wellbeing, reducing food waste and community food growing.
Messages that worked best had a positive ‘can do’ tone (rather than creating feelings of shame) and made links to local life. Authenticity and trusted messengers also mattered a lot – people were more likely to listen to other participants who were ‘like them’ than celebrities, politicians or ‘experts’.
Words such as ‘sustainable’ and ‘plant-based’ didn’t land well with this segment. They found this language to be ‘middle class’, marketing-heavy and ignorant of food cultures that already rely on vegetables. Using more straightforward language (e.g., ‘eat more vegetables’) was more acceptable
This research highlights that different factors motivate different groups to change their food habits, while personal values and cultural heritage are strongly linked with people’s decisions to eat meat and dairy.
Data from the CAST Data Portal collected in Oct/Nov 2023 shows clear differences around meat reduction.
More women (46%) said they were ‘fairly/very willing’ to eat less meat or meat products than men (39%) – as shown in the chart below. Similarly, women were more likely to say they intended to adopt a vegetarian diet (27% women vs 18% men) or vegan diet (17% women vs 13% men).
This fits with other evidence showing there are notable gender differences when it comes to meat consumption in the UK. For instance, YouGov polling from 2022 showed that while three-quarters of Britons (75%) eat meat – the rates were clearly higher amongst men (82%) than women (69%).
However, the hallmarks of gender differences appeared to be less notable for other forms of diet choices. The CAST data shows little in the way of gender divergence when it comes to buying locally-produced food (64% willingness for women, vs. 65% men) and reducing food waste (82% willingness for women, vs. 80% men).
Chart: Gender differences in willingness to eat less meat or meat products. Source: CAST Data Portal.
An online survey by the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) revealed that British people also did not think that reducing red meat consumption is a very effective climate solution, compared to other actions.
When asked to pick which action (from a list of eight) would have the greatest impact on climate change if everybody in the country did it, ‘eat less red meat’ received the fewest number of votes (6-8%).
Other actions on the list were: drive an electric car; minimise air travel; minimise home energy use; minimise food waste; reduce new purchases; use low-carbon heating; walk, cycle or use public transport.
When asked to pick their top three actions, only one-fifth of respondents picked the option about red meat.
Despite this, across the four years of survey data, up to two-thirds of respondents felt that people in the UK should ‘probably’ or ‘definitely’ reduce red meat consumption to limit climate change (58-66%).
A repeated survey run by the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) investigated which dietary changes British people intend to make to fight climate change.
Across the waves of data between 2020-23, the most popular change was planning meals to reduce food waste – 74-81% of people said they were fairly or very likely to make the change. Buying locally produced food (61-65%) and eating fewer calories (42-46%) were also acceptable.
While 43% of participants were willing to ‘eat less meat or meat products’, willingness was consistently lower when asked about adopting a vegetarian diet (19-27%), and lower still for a vegan diet (11-19%).
Nevertheless, over half (55%) of people who responded felt it was their personal responsibility (alongside business and Government) to take actions to reduce the risk of climate change.
An online survey by the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) investigated how far British people support different policies to encourage sustainable diets.
The policies were ranked as follows (from most to least popular, according to the percentage of respondents who supported the policy):
Government data showed that from March 2021 to March 2022, people in the UK consumed less meat than at any point since records began in the 1970s. The average Brit ate 854g a week, down 14% since 2012.
The trend is thought to be driven by the cost of living crisis, Covid-19 and broader lifestyle changes.
Not all meats are equal here though: In the preceding decade, ‘carcass meat’ consumption (including beef, pork and lamb) fell by 26%, while chicken and other meat products fell by 11%.
The data also shows a drop in Britons’ takeaway meat consumption in 2021-22, with people eating fewer burgers, kebabs and meat pies than at any point since the 1980s.
A report commissioned by the Climate Change Committee, outlines a broad range of factors that impact people’s food choices.
It makes several recommendations for how the UK Government could encourage people to change their diets in line with net zero goals, including:
The report builds on the Behavioural Insights Team’s 12 behavioural science approaches to encouraging greener diets.
Government ministers have been criticised for their handling of emissions relating to meat consumption, after a key Government policy document appeared to circumnavigate the issue. The land use strategy for England – did not include reduction in area used for animal agriculture, despite being designed to ensure the country reaches its net zero and biodiversity targets, while helping farmers adapt to climate change and continue producing high-quality, affordable food. A senior Defra source commented “it’s not up to us to tell people what to eat”.
This is at odds with the government-commissioned National Food Strategy (NFS) which recommended that to achieve a sustainable future, the UK must reduce the proportion of farming land committed to animal agriculture (which stood at 85% at the time).
Henry Dimbleby, who led the NFS review, remarked that no government would tell the public to eat less meat as the message was “politically toxic”.
In November 2023, food systems campaign group ‘Feedback’ applied to take the Government to Court for a judicial review over its ‘failure’ to tackle food and farming emissions in the Food Strategy. Feedback’s application was rejected, a move which the environmental group said revealed fatal flaws in the Climate Change Act.
What’s the public appetite for climate-friendly food choices?
Making sense of public opinion on sustainable food and diet changes in 2025 – from willingness and perception gaps, to policies and public engagement.