‘Meat tax’ could have significant impact on environmental footprint, study finds

The biggest tax break for meat consumption is in Ireland, where meat has zero tax compared with a general VAT rate of 23%. Photograph: Stéphane de Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images

The environmental impacts of meat consumption could be rapidly and cheaply reduced if governments applied full VAT on products such as beef, pork, lamb and chicken, a study has shown.

Depending on how the additional tax revenues were redistributed, such a change could cost households as little as €26 (£23) a year, while cutting ecological destruction by between 3% and 6%, the paper found.