Alan Cumming Slams COP26 for ‘Irresponsible’ Decision to Serve Meat
For Immediate Release:
June 30, 2021
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
This morning, actor Alan Cumming sent a letter on PETA U.K.’s behalf to MP Alok Sharma, the president of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), urging him to ensure that only vegan food is served at the event. The proud Scot points out that the meat and dairy industries are a leading cause of the climate crisis that the Glasgow-based event is seeking to address.
“Given that animal agriculture contributes to many of the serious environmental problems the planet is facing, I hope you’ll agree that serving meat while trying to fight climate change is like serving beer at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting,” writes Cumming. “If the goal of the COP26 summit is to protect the planet—as well as promote compassionate, responsible behavior—animal-derived foods have no place on the menu.”
The United Nations states that animal agriculture is responsible for nearly a fifth of human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions and that raising animals for food is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” A widespread switch to vegan eating could cut global greenhouse-gas emissions by 70% by 2050, in addition to preventing animals from suffering on filthy farms and dying in slaughterhouses after their throats are slit.
PETA U.K.—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—previously named Glasgow the Most Vegan-Friendly City in the U.K.
To date, more than 55,000 supporters of PETA U.K. and its affiliates have joined Cumming in calling on COP26 to lead by example by taking meat off the menu.
For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
