Source: Business Standard
Context
A report by Asia Research and Engagement (ARE) with FICCI projects India’s per capita protein consumption will more than triple by 2070, pushing protein-related emissions to more than seven times the estimated climate-safe threshold.
The Consumption Projection
- Per capita annual protein consumption: 9.5 kg (2025) → 30 kg (2070)
- Dairy forms a significant part of the total
- Drivers: population growth, rising incomes, urbanisation, public nutrition programmes, and shifting dietary preferences
- Despite the rise, India remains protein insecure and faces dietary inequality
Important Facts for Exams
- Report by Asia Research and Engagement (ARE) with FICCI
- Protein consumption: 9.5 kg (2025) → 30 kg (2070) per capita per year
- BAU emissions 1.92 Gt CO₂e; climate-safe threshold 0.25 Gt CO₂e; combined approach 0.30 Gt CO₂e
- India imports about 90 per cent of processed plant-protein isolates
- Dairy and pulses to remain the main protein sources; red meat to stay small
- India is the world’s largest milk producer, about 24 per cent of global output
- Enteric fermentation in ruminants is the largest agricultural methane source
- Methane accounts for about 0.5°C of global warming and has a short atmospheric lifetime of about a decade
- Pulses fix atmospheric nitrogen, requiring far less fertiliser than animal protein systems
- Protein isolate — protein extracted and concentrated from a plant source such as soy or pea
