Food waste contributes 10% to global emissions but 9 out of 10 countries’ NDCs fail to focus on food waste and loss

Global environmental action NGO WRAP is using COP29 to highlight the need for countries to include food loss and waste in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

A new report shows of the 195 countries attending COP29, only 12 have committed to reducing food waste and just 17 to tackling food loss. In total, 24 countries (12%) commit to reducing ​food loss and/or waste​ while 88% attending the global climate conference have made no commitments to address either so far in their NDCs.

Harriet Lamb CEO WRAP, ‘Our global food system is broken and is wrecking the environment. The IPCC made it clear that food production contributes 37% to all greenhouse gas emissions and even if all other emissions ended immediately, global food production alone would push us far beyond 1.5°C. Wasted food contributes almost five times more GHG emissions than aviation and were it a country, food waste would be the world's third largest emitter after China and the USA. So the fact that so few countries are addressing this critical situation in their NDCs is shocking.'

The latest Food Waste Index Report (2024), compiled by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and co-authored by WRAP, found that the world wastes over a billion tonnes of food - one fifth of all food available to consumers at the retail, food service and household level annually. This is in addition to 13 per cent lost in the supply chain, according to the FAO.

WRAP warns that food loss and waste have devastating impacts on society and global economies too. The World Economic Forum estimates that food loss and waste costs the global economy $936 billion a year, while more than 783 million people go hungry and a third of humanity faces food insecurity.

WRAP advises that countries are missing a golden opportunity to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and increase security of food supplies to their citizens by preventing food loss and waste. The global NGO will use COP29 to restate its message that we cannot tackle climate change if we don't fix our broken food system.

As a member of The Global Action Drive group (GAD)*, WRAP and its partners are calling on all countries to take the following decisive steps:

1. Commit to delivering UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 and halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses, by 2030,
2. Include this commitment in their new NDCs to be submitted by early 2025,
3. Set meaningful targets and intersectoral mechanisms to operationalise follow up,
4. Back this commitment with specific practical policy measures,
5. Start measuring and reporting food loss and waste at national and sector levels, and
6. Include solid national data to report on progress through the biennial transparency reports.

Action on food loss and waste at COP29

Based on its research of how countries have integrated food loss and waste into their NDCs to varying degrees, WRAP and GAD have published a best practice guide Why & How to Incorporate Reducing Food Loss and Waste into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for countries to include food loss and waste in their NDCs.

Countries have until February 2025 to submit their NDCs for COP30 and WRAP is calling on all governments to include food loss and waste reduction ahead of the next global meeting. Doing so offers countries that signed the Global Methane Pledge (158 countries, COP26 - European Union and the United States), and those who signed UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action (160+ countries, COP28) the opportunity to strengthen their climate commitments. 

WRAP will also join with The Global Food Banking Network, ReFED and FareShare to host a series of sessions dedicated to addressing food loss and waste at COP29.

Taking place in the Action on Food Hub (Blue Zone) the sessions will bring together leaders and experts to focus on policies and legal frameworks to explore methods and innovations towards reducing the amount of food that fails to feed people. The series of workshops will highlight projects and solutions from around the world to representatives from government, business, multilaterals and other civil society organizations.

Harriet Lamb, ‘Food, textiles and manufactured products account for nearly 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing the problems in our food system and creating a circular economy are key to tackling these huge emitters of greenhouse gases. We must embrace circular living in every boardroom and every home.'

Ends

Notes to editor

• Report: Global Action Drive For Food Loss and Waste Reduction

*Formed in 2024, the Global Action Drive (GAD) brings together internationally active non-governmental organizations around a shared agenda to accelerate regional and national action on food loss and waste and provide support to existing initiatives - in particular the Champions 12.3 Coalition. Organisations under GAD include WRAP, the World Resources Institute, WWF, ReFED, NDC Partnership and UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

WRAP is a global environmental action NGO catalysing policy makers, businesses and individuals to transform the systems that create our food, textiles and manufactured products. Together these account for nearly 50% of global greenhouse emissions. Our goal is to enable the world to transition from the old take-make-dispose model of production to more sustainable approaches that will radically reduce waste and carbon emissions from everyday products. To do so we examine sustainability challenges through the lens of people's day-to-day lives and create solutions that can transform entire systems to benefit the planet, nature and people.