Environmental NGO WRAP is utilizing COP29 to spotlight the necessity for international locations to incorporate meals loss and waste of their Nationally Decided Contributions (NDCs).
A brand new report exhibits that, of the 195 international locations attending COP29, solely 12 have dedicated to decreasing meals waste and simply 17 to tackling meals loss. In whole, 24 international locations (12%) decide to decreasing meals loss and/or waste whereas 88% attending the worldwide local weather convention have made no commitments to handle both up to now of their NDCs.
Harriet Lamb CEO WRAP, commented: “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 newest Food Waste Index Report (2024)compiled by the United Nations Surroundings Programme (UNEP) and co-authored by WRAP, discovered that the world wastes over a billion tonnes of meals – one fifth of all meals obtainable to shoppers on the retail, meals service and family degree yearly. That is along with 13 per cent misplaced within the provide chain, in response to the FAO.
WRAP warns that meals loss and waste have devastating impacts on society and world economies too. The World Financial Discussion board estimates that meals loss and waste prices the worldwide financial system $936 billion a 12 months, whereas greater than 783 million folks go hungry and a 3rd of humanity faces meals insecurity.
WRAP advises that international locations are lacking a golden alternative to sort out greenhouse gasoline emissions and improve safety of meals provides to their residents by stopping meals loss and waste. The worldwide NGO will use COP29 to restate its message that we can not sort out local weather change if we don’t repair our damaged meals system.
As a member of The World Motion Drive group (GAD)*, WRAP and its companions are calling on all international locations to take the next decisive steps:
Decide to delivering UN Sustainable Improvement Objective 12.3 and halve per capita world meals waste on the retail and shopper ranges and cut back meals losses alongside manufacturing and provide chains, together with post-harvest losses, by 2030,
Embody this dedication of their new NDCs to be submitted by early 2025,
Set significant targets and intersectoral mechanisms to operationalise observe up,
Again this dedication with particular sensible coverage measures,
Begin measuring and reporting meals loss and waste at nationwide and sector ranges, and
Embody strong nationwide knowledge to report on progress by way of the biennial transparency experiences.
Motion on meals loss and waste at COP29
Based mostly on its analysis of how international locations have built-in meals loss and waste into their NDCs to various levels, WRAP and GAD have revealed a greatest observe information Why & How to Incorporate Reducing Food Loss and Waste into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for international locations to incorporate meals loss and waste of their NDCs.
International locations have till February 2025 to submit their NDCs for COP30 and WRAP is looking on all governments to incorporate meals loss and waste discount forward of the subsequent world assembly. Doing so provides international locations that signed the World Methane Pledge (158 international locations, COP26 – European Union and the USA), and those that signed UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Meals Techniques, and Local weather Motion (160+ international locations, COP28) the chance to strengthen their local weather commitments.
WRAP may even be part of with The World Meals Banking Community, ReFED and FareShare to host a collection of classes devoted to addressing meals loss and waste at COP29.
Happening within the Motion on Meals Hub (Blue Zone) the classes will convey collectively leaders and consultants to deal with insurance policies and authorized frameworks to discover strategies and improvements in the direction of decreasing the quantity of meals that fails to feed folks. The collection of workshops will spotlight tasks and options from all over the world to representatives from authorities, enterprise, multilaterals and different 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.’
