 |
|
Participants attend a plenary session
entitled "Climate change: change business, change us", a sideline of the
Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2008, at Boao, south China's
Hainan Province, April 13, 2008. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
BOAO, Hainan, April 13(Xinhua) - Several participants
of the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference 2008 £¨BFA£©Sunday called on the
public to reduce meat consumption in order to cut down carbon dioxide emission.
Gerard Kleisterlee, chairman and chief executive
officer of Royal Philips Electronics Group, urged the public to eat less meat
and take part in the green action of environmental protection at a plenary
session of BFA entitled ¡°Climate change: change business, change us.¡±
According to statistics, he said, the amount of
carbon dioxide emission of stock raising is far more than that of automobile
industry. So he suggested people cut down meat consumption to reduce the carbon
dioxide emission.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in
2007, agreed with him, adding that ¡°less food , less meat, the healthier, the
longer life span.¡±
At the session, Khalid Malik, UN Coordinator for
China, expressed the same opinion. He said that eating less meat is not only a
healthier living style, but also conducive to the protection of the environment.
Fresh research published in New Scientist last month
suggested that the output of one kilogram of beef will result in 36-kilogram
emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the
amount of gases emission of 155-kilometer car-driving.
The BFA, established in 2001, served as a platform
for high-level interaction between political, commercial and academic
dignitaries from Asia and other parts of the world.
More than 1,700 influential politicians, business
leaders, intellectuals and journalists from around the globe were currently in
China's southern Hainan Province for the 2008 Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual
conference. It runs from April 11 to 13.
