The United Nations (UN) has deleted a social media post in which it claimed meat was responsible for more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than the world’s largest oil companies following intense criticism from climate scientists, farmers and even some of its own staff.

Earlier this week, a post on the official Twitter account of the UN claimed that the global meat industry was responsible for more GHG emissions that the world’s biggest oil companies.

The post also encouraged people to eat less meat as a means to reduce harmful climate emissions.

UN tweet that claims the meat industry is more damaging to the atmosphere than the world's largest oil companies.

Almost instantly, the UN’s twitter post attracted widespread criticism from climate scientists, political leaders, farmers and even staff members from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which is the UN’s own agency charged with eliminating global food insecurity.

Prof Frank Mitloehner, an air quality scientist at UC Davis in California, called the UN’s social media post as "reckless" and a "stunt" that was essentially giving major oil companies a free pass when it comes to tackling climate change.

“This stunt is part of a UN campaign, no less. One that calls for individual action on climate change, but intentionally ignores the true impact of Big Oil (fossil fuels) on the climate. This type of careless rhetoric puts us at risk of leaving a warmer planet behind,” said Mitloehner.

Michael Mann, one of the world’s leading climate scientists based out of Penn State in the US, said the claim made by the UN was not true by any defensible means of accounting for climate emissions.

Political leaders also reacted angrily to the post. David Littleproud, Australia’s minister for agriculture, hit out at the UN and stated that such a claim was an insult to farmers that was based on an ideological agenda.

Hypocritical

“Urging people to eat less meat based on an ideological agenda is nothing short of hypocritical and disgraceful. Meat continues to be an essential food item for people around the world regardless of income level,” said Littleproud.

After significant pressure, the UN finally deleted the tweet from its official twitter account on Thursday.