New “Meat Free Monday Climate Pledge” campaign launched

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From paulmccartney.com, September 8, 2014:

PAUL, MARY AND STELLA McCARTNEY JOIN FORCES WITH GREG BARKER MP TO LAUNCH MEAT FREE MONDAY CLIMATE PLEDGE CAMPAIGN

Global Leaders Must Act, But We Can All Play A Part To Cut Global Emissions

London Monday 8 September – Today the McCartney family and Rt Hon Gregory Barker MP, former Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change and now Climate Advisor to David Cameron, launched an online campaign to encourage people to skip meat one day a week in order to reduce their carbon footprint and help tackle climate change. The ‘Meat Free Monday Climate Pledge’ campaign (#MFMclimatepledge) will run during the build up to the UN Climate Summit that is taking place in New York later this month.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is gathering together global leaders on 23 September – the first time Heads of State will have come together to discuss climate change since Copenhagen in 2009. The summit is being held to jump-start the climate negotiations that are due to conclude with an ambitious global treaty in December 2015. To help build momentum Ban Ki-moon is looking for “bold commitments and actions that will catalyse transformative change”.

The McCartney family and Greg Barker are therefore putting a simple but effective idea on the table: a weekly meat-free day. Over the next two weeks, they will be encouraging people from all over to visit pledge.meatfreemondays.com, pledge to go meat free for one day a week and share the idea with others, before Greg Barker then presents the final results of the campaign at the Summit in New York.

The launch, held at vegetarian restaurant tibits in Mayfair, was attended by environmental NGO leaders and a host of supporters. During a delicious Meat Free Brunch, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, WWF, Global Action Plan, Sustainability Hub and the Eating Better alliance came together to back the campaign and committed to encouraging their members and supporters to get involved too.

Greg Barker, who has personally supported Meat Free Monday since the start of the year said: “Giving up meat one day a week is more than just a symbolic act and, if enough of us do it, will send a very powerful and loud message to world leaders. Meat production is an increasingly large contributor to dangerous climate change so coming together like this may have a small but very real impact.”

Paul McCartney added: “Going meat free one day a week is a simple way to contribute to a more sustainable future. Please pledge your support at pledge.meatfreemondays.com and encourage world leaders to back this in order to help fight climate change.” […]

Last updated on February 9, 2021