Paris, France

Everyone knows how important food is in France. So it shouldn’t be surprising that sustainable food is a major part of Paris’ climate plan to reduce greenhouse gases 75% by 2050. This plan commits to reducing meat consumption 20% by 2020, and requires public canteens to have one vegetarian day per week. With 30 million meals served in these canteens every year, that’s an enormous impact!

Meals are required to be sustainable or humane in other ways as well: eggs must be cage-free, fish must not come from deep water fishing, and palm oil is not allowed.

What’s next?

We did hear that a lack of central coordination has slowed implementation of these standards, so we encourage the city of Paris to invest in coordination. And requiring two vegetarian meals per week would double the impact and get Paris closer to its climate goals!

Greenpeace’s global challenge:

Our supporters are challenging cities to race to the top on meat reduction to protect our climate, forests and water. We aim to have at least 20 cities commit to serving two vegetarian meals (no meat or dairy options) in all public canteens weekly by the end of 2018. We expect to have at least 100 global cities make this or a greater commitment toward less and better meat and more plant-based meals by 2020.