At Leanpath we have long recognized the connection between food waste and climate change. That critical connection is foundational to our mission of making food waste prevention and measurement everyday practice in the world’s kitchens.
The food waste-climate connection has been amplified by many organizations. For example, the UNFAO famouslynoted years ago that if ranked as a country, food waste would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions behind the U.S. and China. The World Wildlife Fund recentlyfound that global food wastage accounts for up to 10% of global emissions. And the Project Drawdown teamcited food waste reduction as one of the top solutions to climate change.
In addition, UK-basedWRAP highlighted a critical point in a recent report (Food Loss and Waste: From Commitments to Action) that bears repeating: We cannot achieve net zero emissions without tackling food loss and waste.
We are all seeing signs of emissions-driven climate change around the world in recent weeks in the form of record temperatures, drought, fires, and floods, and we think it is important to highlight stories reflecting those signals.