Sir Paul McCartney blasts COP30 for serving meat
Sir Paul McCartney has urged COP30 organizers not to serve meat at the climate change conference.
The Beatles legend, a well-known vegetarian and animal rights activist, wrote an open letter to COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago on behalf of animal rights group PETA about his decision to serve meat to guests at the event starting next week in Belem, Brazil.
McCartney wrote: “On behalf of my friends at PETA, I am writing to ask you to align COP30’s mission by making its menu entirely vegetarian. This will greatly reduce its carbon footprint and overall environmental impact and set a positive example for the world to follow.”
The 83-year-old musician was shocked by the lack of vegetarian options for guests, especially given the serious threat climate change poses to Brazil and the Amazon Rainforest.
The Let It Be artist said: “It is fitting that COP30 is held in Belem, the gateway to the Amazon, whose rainforest is often referred to as the ‘lungs of the Earth’ as it absorbs and stores large amounts of carbon dioxide while releasing oxygen.
“Protecting the life-sustaining Amazon should be a top priority for environmentalists of all nationalities, so I was shocked to learn that only 40 percent of the food served at COP30 is currently planned to be vegetarian.”
Paul couldn’t help but point out the irony of serving meat at an event meant to help the environment.
He joked: “Serving meat at a climate summit is like handing out cigarettes at a cancer prevention conference! The livestock industry is one of the biggest drivers of deforestation and the climate disaster ravaging the planet.”
McCartney concluded: “COP30’s own website confirms that plant-based meals have a significantly lower carbon footprint, so I urge you to lead by example and make the conference entirely vegetarian.”
Paul and his late wife, Linda McCartney, became vegetarians in 1975, and the music icon is proud to have pioneered a diet now adopted by millions of people around the world.
He said: “It was definitely a mutual decision. We were both quite happy to eat meat because he was a great cook and we hadn’t really thought about it until one day when we were having a lamb dinner on the farm and we both realized that what we were eating was lamb from outside. We didn’t like it.”
“’Should we try being a vegetarian?’ we said. And actually trying to think of what we should fill the space in the middle of the plate with was a very exciting point in our lives.
“Of course, it’s not hard at all anymore. You just go to the shops and most places have great vegetarian options. It was a mutual decision and we never looked back. It was a great thing to do and it turned out we were part of the vegetarian revolution.”
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