A climate advocacy group on Tuesday called on the government to include more plant-based options in menus provided at public premises, such as hospitals and government canteens.

The group surveyed 446 people last month and found that about 70 percent of respondents believe that restaurants in the city don’t provide enough vegetarian options.

Lorraine Wong, a member of Eatcofriendly, said the government should take the lead and initiate changes.

"When we look into the examples of Paris and Seoul, they have already set a target of 50 percent of food selling in the government sector being plant-based," Wong said.

The youth group also urged the administration to include carbon emissions generated by imported foods in its carbon neutrality policy to more accurately gauge the city’s decarbonisation progress.

"If we add the consumption-based emissions, the distribution of the emissions from different sources will be changed drastically," Nathaniel Yuen, another member of the group said.

"If we look at the example of New York City, food actually contributes to around 20 percent of emissions... which is comparable to transport [emissions].”