The Price of Meat in International Climate Change Law

The influence of food production and more particularly meat has been dramatically neglected from international climate change law. That is striking, as several reports indicate that livestock production creates 14,5% of all global greenhouse gas emissions and even 25% if land use is included as well. This paper argues that meat production should be included in the international climate change regime and examines a variety of instruments that could be employed to do so. Attention is paid to production changes and regulation of production as well as to a possible extension of the emission trading schemes. But it is argued that the most promising instrument is the introduction of a meat tax. The paper sketches how the optimal tax rate should be determined, what the effects of the tax are expected to be and how support for a meat tax could be achieved. However, it is equally argued that the meat tax should be one instrument among a smart mix of various instruments, including also behavioral policy. Given cross-border externalities, the meat tax should be mandated at at least a regional and preferably even international level. So far, the effects of meat production on climate change have been dramatically ignored as none of the G20 countries have referred to the effect of food production on global warming in their nationally determined contributions. That is dramatic as there is a great likelihood that the goals of the Paris Agreement cannot be reached without incorporating meat production into climate change policy. The only reason that this has so far not been done is that it has been prevented by effective lobbying from the meat industry. The paper therefore argues that the price of meat should take the negative external effects of meat production and consumption into account, more particularly on climate change.