International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste: 29 September.
The main aim of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste as co-convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is to raise awareness about the problems that food loss and food waste generate, and to explore solutions at all levels. The day also seeks to promote global efforts and collective action towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3, which targets to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level by 2030, and reduce food losses along the food production and supply chains. 2024 marks the fifth observance of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, and it is dedicated to highlighting the critical need for financing to bolster efforts to reduce food loss and waste, contribute to achieving climate goals and advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Did You Know?
Reducing food loss and waste is a priority area for action in FAO’s Global Roadmap Toward Achieving SDG2 Without Breaching the 1.5 0 C Threshold (FAO 2024).
Higher seasonal temperatures, extreme heat events, and droughts make it more challenging to store, process, transport, and sell food safely, often resulting in significant quantities of food loss and
waste (UNEP 2024).Rotting food in landfills produces methane gas, which has far greater potential to trap heat than carbon dioxide.
Food waste continues to hurt the global economy and fuel climate change, nature loss, and pollution (UNEP 2024).
As of 2022, only 21 countries have included food loss and/or wastereduction in their national climate plans (UNEP 2024).
The United Arab Emirates Declaration of Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action, endorsed by 159 heads of state and heads of government at The COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, includes an explicit reference to the need to: “Revisit or orient policies and public support related to agriculture and food systems to promote activities which increase incomes, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and bolster resilience, productivity, livelihoods, nutrition, water efficiency and human, animal and ecosystem health while reducing food loss and waste, and ecosystem loss and degradation.
FAO, UNEP 2024
