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 commit to reducing food loss and/or waste while 88 per cent attending the global climate conference have made no commitments to address either so far in their NDCs.

Harriet Lamb CEO WRAP said, “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 US. 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.

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 and those who signed UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action the opportunity to strengthen their climate commitments.

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