Take a Stroll… Paul Mc Cartney On COP30 And The Importance Of Practicing What You Preach.

Following Sir Paul McCartney making headlines for, well, quoting the obvious — “Serving meat at a climate summit is like handing out cigarettes at a cancer prevention conference” — our hands can’t choose between applaud and facepalm. Because really, it’s 2025 and we still need a Beatle to spell it out? What Sir Paul Mc Cartney is asking here is just, simply, to walk the talk, folks. Or just, maybe, at least stop grilling beef while discussing methane emissions.

Step in the…. obvious

McCartney’s latest go at it (as covered by NME) wasn’t just a soundbite — it was a vegetarian veteran calling out the climate hypocrisy that still sneaks onto the menu at the world’s supposedly most serious “green talk” gathering. COP30, the globe’s grand annual theatre of carbon pledges, is still serving steak while discussing planetary boundaries. That’s not irony — that’s performance art.

Sir Paul’s thankfully got quite the cast with him on the veggie bandwagon. The list of artists using their fame to question the meat-industrial complex reads like a festival lineup we’d actually pay to see: Billie Eilish ( vocal sustainability advocate flipping all her arena tours meat-free), Moby (who’s tattooed it all over his body, just in case you were contemplating asking him again), and even the late, great Prince (a lifelong vegetarian who made “Let’s Go Crazy” sound like a plant-based battle cry). Add to that Russel Brand, Pamela Anderson, a Forest Whitetaker, Leonardo DiCaprio’s crusades or Woody Harrelson’s tree-hugging consistency, and you start to see a pattern: the cool kids long ago dropped the meat mic.

Even Greta Thunberg’s been belting this tune louder than a bass drop at EDC Orlando. She’s repeatedly called out world leaders for showing up at UN climate conferences on private jets or enjoying burgers while debating global sustainability targets. At one such event, she simply refused to attend the “green gala dinners” that served animal products, bluntly stating that “the climate crisis is a communications crisis” — and apparently, also a catering one.

The grass is always greener.... oh, wait.

In all truth, not something we’re unfamiliar with ourselves, on our turf. I’ve personally lost count of the times I’ve stepped on stage rep’ing Bye Bye Plastic Foundation, org’ logo blasted on the big screen as we introduce the panelists… only to find a shiny, full plastic water bottle waiting for me under the projectors. 

Which brings us back to McCartney’s point — if the climate summits themselves can’t model the change they’re preaching, then who will? If those aren’t the spaces for bold experiments for radical transparency— plant-based menus, no single-use anything, innovative renewable powers— then where else are we supposed to turn to see this shine? Eleven days of vegetarian meals at COP30 won’t exactly ruin anyone’s life, but it just could have made a real statement that means something.

The music world is already doing it. Festivals like DGTL (who did it 10 years ago!), We Love Green, and Paradise Garden have been going meat-free and fans are raving about it, even when the media doesn’t frame it this way. Massive Attack and Billie Eilish delivered prowesses on their last respective tours & concerts. In the electronic world, Ida Engberg is notoriously vegan, as is Amelie Lens, who’s been lobbying promoters to make these switches event-wide. If dance floors can go green and still kick harder than ever, why can’t political conferences do the same?

Lighthouse are far from Belem

At Bye Bye Plastic, we’ve built our groove around an uncompromising beat — staying true to our ethos, even when it costs us more time, budget, and frankly convenience. We’re far from perfect (who is?), but we’re trying. But it a world where COP30 can’t be trusted as a lighthouse, this article is here to show that the people guiding the leadership of example are everywhere else if you dare to look: check out Claire O’Neill from A Greener Future, who vehemently refuses to fly (and to eat meat!) despite her packed annual global conference calendar. Or Deborah Aime La Bagarre, who goes by the same book and, as we learned during the last MaMa Convention in Paris, seriously considered crossing the Atlantic by boat to make his US tour possible.

So, as McCartney reminds us, maybe it’s time for the big tables — those political stages with their polished sustainability statements and buffet lines — to tune their acts. If the music world can review its habits, maybe the political world can, too. Leadership of example has never been about what you say on the mic ; it’s about what you serve backstage.

Let’s go take that stroll. No meat, no plastic — just substance.