McCartney calls for meat-free day to cut CO2

(AFP PHOTO/David BOILY)

Paul McCartney is urging consumers to fight global warming by going vegetarian at least once a week, ahead of an address he will deliver on Thursday to the European Parliament.

"By making a simple change in the way you eat, you are taking part in a world changing campaign where what's good for you is also good for the planet," the former Beatle told the Parliament Magazine.

"Having one designated meat-free day a week is a meaningful change that everyone can make," he said. "Above all, remember that the future begins with the actions we take now."

McCartney is fitting his campaign in Brussels for a "Meat-free Monday" into a European concert tour which starts Wednesday in the German city of Hamburg, where the Beatles began building their fame in the early 1960s.

McCartney, a longtime environmental campaigner, told the EU magazine that there is "clear" evidence that meat production is "major contributor" to climate change.

World leaders at the upcoming Copenhagen summit on climate change should regard a sustainable food policy as a key part of the fight to curb CO2 emissions, he said.

"A lower-meat diet could see greenhouse gases reduced by as much as 80 per cent," he said.

"Western countries currently eat meat at least seven times a week, but using a series of projected world diets, latest reports recommend reducing that to twice or three times a week."

Joining McCartney in Brussels will be Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN intergovernmental panel on climate change, and Olivier de Schutter, UN special rapporteur for the right to food.

None of the three eat meat, the Parliament Magazine said.