PRESS RELEASES | 2024

Heather Mills plans protest at Bonn Climate Conference to call for a global Plant Based Treaty to address food emissions

Media Contacts:

• Bonn, Germany: Lia Phillips, Plant Based Treaty city campaigner, [email protected]
• Bournemouth, UK: Nicola Harris, Plant Based Treaty communications director, [email protected]

Media Contacts:

• Lia Phillips, Plant Based Treaty city campaigner [email protected]
• Nicola Harris, Plant Based Treaty communications director, [email protected]

(Bonn – June 4, 2024) —Heather Mills will join climate campaigners at the Bonn Climate Conference this week where she will call for a global Plant Based Treaty to bring the food system in line with the Paris Agreement. 

Heather, who launched VBites in 2009 which is one of the leading manufacturers and wholesalers of plant-based meat and cheese in the UK, will urge world leaders to shift policy tools such as agricultural subsidies away from meat and dairy production towards the plant-based sector to help reduce greenhouse emissions and improve food security.

Heather Mills says, “Climate conferences can lead the way by adopting plant-based menus. Why would anyone who cares about climate change not know that that is essential at a climate conference? If you don’t have the willpower to be plant-based all year round to minimise climate change, at least eat it at the conference. Countries should use the Bonn Climate Convention and COP28 to make solid commitments and create a roadmap to transition away from animal farms to plant-based production to secure an affordable, self-sufficient food system. It’s been scientifically proven that you can make a profit growing plants instead of growing animals with plants to feed humans. We need a common sense approach at climate conferences.”

Heather will meet with the UNFCCC to discuss a pathway to 100% plant-based catering at future climate conferences including COP29 in Azerbaijan. Heather has offered to hold cookery training workshops ahead of COP29 to ensure the plant-based offerings are irresistible. 

Lia Phillips, Plant Based Treaty campaigner says, “18,000 people have signed Plant Based Treaty’s petition calling for 100% plant-based catering at COP29. Serving meat and dairy at climate conventions is akin to serving cigarettes at health conferences. We saw a vast improvement in plant-based provision at COP28 and we hope to create a plan to transition to 100% plant-based catering at COP29 and the next Bonn Conference.”

During the conference, Plant Based Treaty advocates will park a food truck at the entrance to the Bonn Climate Conference and distribute 2000 free hot dogs donated by Heather Mills and VBites.

Heather Mills itinerary and photo opportunities

• 5 June 2024 @ 5pm CET, Bonn Climate Conference entrance, World Conference Center, Bonn, Germany Heather Mills will help distribute 2000 free plant-based hotdogs to climate delegates at the Plant Based Treaty food truck located near the entrance of the Bonn Climate Convention.
• 6 June 2024, time TBC:
  Heather Mills will lead a protest inside the Bonn Conference to call for a global Plant Based Treaty
  6 June 2024 @ 2pm CET, Bonn Climate Conference, Room Nairobi 4 Main Building, World Conference Center, Bonn, Germany
  Heather Mills will deliver a press conference with climate campaigners to call for a global Plant Based Treaty as a companion to the Paris Agreement

Food accounts for a third of greenhouse gas emissions, the majority of which comes from meat and dairy production. The most detailed analysis of UK diets, published in the journal Nature Food found that plant-based diets resulted in 75% less climate-heating emissions, water pollution and land use than diets in which more than 100g of meat a day was eaten. They also cut the destruction of wildlife by 66% and water use by 54%.

Background

Heather Mills
Heather Mills is an entrepreneur, charity campaigner, world record holder and Paralympic ski racer. In 1993 Heather became vegan later launching the multi-award-winning plant-based vegan ethical food company, VBites to feed people who found it hard to give up meat fish and dairy products with alternatives. VBites not only exports to over 24 countries worldwide, it generates global and online sales with over 130 meat-free, fish-free and dairy-free products in its range to leave no excuse for people not to go plant-based. 

Plant Based Treaty

Plant Based Treaty are calling for a global agreement that aligns the food system to the Paris Agreement, along with the implementation of best practices in plant-based food policy at the city and institutional level. Plant Based Treaty has been endorsed by 29 cities including Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Belfast, and has received support from 150,000 individual endorsers, 5 Nobel laureates, IPCC scientists, and more than 3000 groups and businesses, including Vbites, Ecotricity, Plant Based Health Professionals, UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, and chapters of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

At COP28, the Plant-Based Treaty launched its Safe and Just Report, which assesses the impact of the food system on our planetary and social boundaries and the plant-based solutions required to bring the food system into a safe and just operating space for communities to thrive.