Amsterdam won’t be giving up its Gouda. Los Angeles eateries will keep serving up combinations of bacon, chicken, egg and blue cheese that are essential to its signature Cobb salads. And Scots can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Edinburgh has no plans to outlaw haggis.

Yet officials from each of these cities want people to consume less dairy and meat. They are signatories to the Plant Based Treaty, which was launched in 2021 with the aim of calling attention to the role played by greenhouse gases that are generated by food production.

The treaty is not binding and its effect varies wildly, ranging from just messaging to concrete plans to reduce dairy and meat served in institutions and schools and cut down on food waste.

But local leaders who championed the treaty said it helped solidify their efforts to encourage plant consumption for both climate and health reasons, while also sending a pressing message.

“In Edinburgh, we’ve got quite ambitious climate plans, whether it’s energy or retrofitting public transport, but we were missing a key part of this, which was food,” said Ben Parker, a member of the Scottish Green Party on the Edinburgh City Council, which endorsed the treaty in early 2023. “Plant based foods have a massive role to play in terms of bringing down carbon emissions.”

The treaty grew out of the Animal Save Movement. As climate change worsened, one of its founders, Anita Krajnc, grew dismayed at how little both the heat trapping emissions and ecological destruction related to meat were factoring into global climate talks.