This post is taken from the “Chaleur Humaine” newsletter, sent every Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. Every week, journalist Nabil Wakim, who hosts the Chaleur Humaine podcast, answers questions from Internet users on the climate challenge. You can register for free by clicking here.
Question of the week
“I clearly understood that our diet played an important role in global warming, and I read somewhere (I don’t remember where!) that coffee emits as much as steak, is that TRUE ? And so what do we do if we can no longer drink coffee! » Question asked by François at chaud [email protected].
My response: No, that’s not true. Beef has a much higher carbon impact: 14 kilos of CO equivalent2 for one kilo of meat consumed, while coffee has 600 g of CO equivalent2 per liter. In other words: there’s no match, even if you’re a big coffee drinker (like me). However, coffee does not have a very good carbon footprint, if we compare it to tea, for example.
1/Why does beef emit more?
Beef emits more than other meats for two reasons: cows are ruminants and emit methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. And intensive agricultural practices are also responsible for numerous emissions, particularly due to deforestation. You can find a more detailed explanation here in this old edition of the “Chaleur humaine” newsletter.
If we consider that a steak weighs on average 120 grams, its “carbon weight” is therefore 1.6 kilos of CO equivalent.2. But a cup of coffee (even a full cup) has a carbon weight of 150 grams. So there is no real match: your steak will always emit more than your filter coffee.
For an even more detailed explanation, you can listen to this episode with researcher Carine Barbier (and the text version can be found here).
2/Why does coffee not have a very good carbon footprint?
However, coffee also has a significant impact on the climate. According to the database of the transition agency, Ademe, a liter of coffee emits the equivalent of 600 grams of CO equivalent.2. If we compare to other drinks, coffee does better than beer, but much worse than tea, which is around 40 grams CO equivalent2 per liter. Especially since the carbon footprint of coffee is even worse if we add cow’s milk, which also emits a lot – for the same reasons as those cited above.
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