The positive climate impact of the Mediterranean diet and current divergence of Mediterranean countries towards less climate sustainable food consumption patterns

Abstract

The Mediterranean diet (MD) is a world-renowned healthy dietary pattern. In the present study we analyse the climate sustainability of the MD and the greenhouse gas emissions (E_GHG) associated with current dietary patterns in Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean EU countries, focusing on the major deviations from the MD health and environmental targets in Mediterranean countries. The E_GHG associated with dietary patterns were calculated for seven Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Malta, referred to as 7MED) and the other 21 countries in the EU 28 (referred to as 21OTHER), using 2017 as the reference year. A new harmonised compilation of 3449 carbon footprint values of food commodities, based on a standardised methodology to extract information and assign optimal footprint values and uncertainties to food items, was used to estimate E_GHG of food consumption. Our findings show that the E_GHG associated with the ideal MD pattern, 2.3 kg CO₂equivalents (CO₂eq) capita^-1 d^-1, are in line with planetary GHG climate targets, though GHG emissions associated with food consumption in Mediterranean countries strongly diverged from the ideal MD. Both MED and 21OTHER countries were found to have comparable dietary associated E_GHG (4.46 and 4.03 kg CO₂eq capita^-1 d^-1 respectively), almost double that expected from a sustainable dietary pattern. The primary factor of dietary divergence in 7MED countries was found to be meat overconsumption, which contributed to 60% of the E_GHG daily excess (1.8 kg of CO₂eq capita^-1 d^-1).