The Chinese government has taken a new step and updated its dietary guideline, asking its 1.3 billion netizens to cut back on the consumption of meat and eggs.

Under the new guideline, the Chinese Ministry of Health is encouraging citizens to cut down on their meat and egg consumption to 200 grams daily. Also, instead of red meat, officials are promoting chicken and fish.

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According to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, China's per capita of meat and egg consumption reaches to about 300 grams every day. This huge demand from China's middle class makes them the biggest contributor to climate change, although their meat and egg consumption still does not match a Westerner's diet.

According to the Think Progress, experts can not determine the extent that the new guidelines will improve on global warming as several factors including how many people will follow the recommendation and the proportion of red meat to fish and poultry consumption are still to be considered. Furthermore, since most Chinese people are already consuming less than the recommended amount, it is not conclusive that everyone will cut back.

Be that as it may, if every Chinese individual follows the new guideline, China's meat, and egg consumption will be chopped down by nearly a third. To illustrate, livestock accounted for 445 million tons of carbon emissions yearly, and chopping those carbon emissions down by a third is similar to removing about 93 million cars off the road.

Also, less meat consumption will also mean lesser factory farms emitting methane gas and polluting local waterways.

Nevertheless, for Chinese health experts, the move is geared towards promoting a healthy lifestyle as obesity among children in the country has skyrocketed since the mid-1980s. Within a generation, obesity increased fourfold - from just 5 percent to 20 percent. Clearly, this is putting the young, and even old, population at great risk of serious illnesses such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

"This development shows that the health bureaucracy is taking actions that are necessary, however, limited they may sound," Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow from the Council of Foreign Relations said.

Tagsdietary guideline, china, meat consumption, Climate Change