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More or Less: Behind the Stats

The carbon cost of breakfast at COP26

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.63.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2021

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A French minister told people to eat fewer croissants at this year’s COP26 summit, after the menu said the carbon cost of the pastry was higher than that of a bacon roll, even if it was made without butter. Tim Harford investigates whether this claim could be true, and how the effect of food on climate change can be measured. (Image: Continental breakfast with coffee and croissants: Getty/Cris Cantón)

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to More or Less on the BBC World Service.

0:09.0

We are weekly guide to the numbers all around us in the news and in life.

0:13.0

And I'm Tim Haferd.

0:17.4

This week a Quasong controversy at COP26.

0:21.4

And also there's one big thing I've learned this morning, Nina, because when you go to

0:24.4

the cafe series to get breakfast, they've got carbon counts on all the dishes on the menu.

0:29.9

And it turns out that a Quasong, which is plant-based, which we're all told, is better for

0:34.2

the environment, actually has a slightly bigger carbon footprint than a bacon roll.

0:39.4

Who knew?

0:40.6

How interesting.

0:42.0

That's the BBC News chief political correspondent Adam Fleming on BBC Breakfast from Glasgow.

0:48.3

In fact, the menus said that a plant-based Quasong was responsible for the equivalent of

0:52.9

0.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide being emitted per pastry, while the equivalent score for the

0:59.6

air-share bacon roll was lower at only 0.4 kilograms.

1:05.0

This led to France's eco-minister weighing in.

1:08.2

I asked Adam to explain what happened.

1:10.8

The French minister for the ecological transition, Barbara Pompeyly, was there about to do an

1:16.5

event, so I pounced on her and said, what do you think about this?

1:20.6

She was a little bit confused because she wasn't expecting it.

1:23.7

We have to look at what we are eating.

1:26.3

A Quasong is so good.

1:28.9

But it is fat and it's not the best carbon footprint.

...

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