Tuesday 8 December 2009

The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

Dear Climate-L readers,

On Saturday 12 December, 13.15 – 14.30 hours, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency will organise the COP15 side event “Meat: How far can governments go in influencing lifestyles?” Venue will be the Holland Climate House in the Bella Conference Center

Participants of this session are Vandana Shiva (Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy), Henriette Prast (Tilburg University), Sjur Kasa (Cicero), Carolyn Steel (Hungry City). Chair is Maarten Hajer (Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, PBL)

The session will discuss how far governments can go in influencing people’s lifestyles, based on a case study of meat. Current meat consumption patterns in industrialised countries are unsustainable from both a land use and a climate perspective. A substantial reduction in meat consumption, per person, in industrialised countries, therefore, seems inevitable. In addition, developing countries should be prevented from following the same unsustainable pathway. But how far can governments go in influencing diets of individual people? What are appropriate instruments to be used? And what research is still needed to successfully reduce meat consumption?

This session is part of the discussion series ‘Successful climate policies after Copenhagen’, organized by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. Please consult for the complete programme of this side-events series the attached brochure and look for the latest updates at our website, www.pbl.nl/cop15

Professor Maarten Hajer,
Director of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

No comments: