The price of meat in international climate change law

International climate change law has paid little attention to food production, and particularly meat, despite livestock’s substantial role in global greenhouse gas emissions, estimated at 14.5% worldwide, rising to around a quarter if land use is included.

This paper argues for integrating meat production into climate policymaking and assesses which instruments could achieve this. Options examined include production changes, stricter regulation, and expanding emissions trading schemes.

The most promising pathway, it suggests, is a meat tax, implemented as part of a broader policy mix that combines market tools with behavioural measures. Such a tax would need at least a regional, ideally international, mandate, given the cross-border nature of emissions and trade.

The analysis outlines how an optimal tax rate could be set, anticipates its effects, and considers how public support could be built.

The paper also highlights a crucial challenge: none of the G20 countries currently references food production in their climate pledges, a gap sustained in part by the lobbying power of the meat industry. Ultimately, it concludes that incorporating the environmental costs of meat into its price is essential if the ambitions of the Paris Agreement are to be met.

Title
The Price of Meat in International Climate Change Law

Series
Maastricht LAW Research Paper Series

Institution
Faculty of Law | Maastricht University

Author
M.G. Faure (ORCID) – Maastricht University (ROR)

DOI (digital version) 
https://doi.org/10.26481/mup.law.rps.2502

Copyright and licensing
© 2025 The Authors & Maastricht University – CC BY
The content of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 International License.

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Publication Type and Language
Research Paper – English

Publication date (first online)
20 August 2025

Subject
transnational environmental law

Keywords
meat, livestock, greenhouse gas emissions, methane, nitrous oxide, ammonia, emission trading, taxation, nudges, behavioural policy, nationally determined contributions, multilevel governance, lobbying

Citation for this work

Faure, M. G. (2025). The Price of Meat in International Climate Change Law. (pp. 1-38). Maastricht University Press. Maastricht LAW Research Paper Series Vol. 2025 No. 02. https://doi.org/10.26481/mup.law.rps.2502

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