No need to give up meat to save planet, says Tony Blair

London: Former prime minister Tony Blair has distanced himself from the idea that he should become a vegetarian as a way of highlighting the dangers of deforestation in his role as a climate change campaigner.

Blair, who is backing a plan for the world to halve greenhouse gases by 2050, said deforestation was responsible for producing four times as many as emissions as the airline industry.

"The destruction of tropical rainforests for conversion to farmland - for meat and crops - must be halted, and reversed," Blair told readers of the Independent in a question and answer session.

"This is why I have called for G8 leaders to support efforts to reduce forest destruction and degradation," he said.