Reducing food loss and waste, adopting more sustainable diets and other actions in food systems represent an opportunity to reduce global emissions by up to 12.5 Gt CO2e. Food systems – which encompass all activities related to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food – account for up to 37% of all greenhouse gas emissions. If the current pattern remains, this means that food systems will be responsible for exhausting 1.5°C-compatible emissions budgets across all sectors.

According to Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the pandemic has exposed the fragility of our food supply systems, from complex value chains to impacts on our ecosystems. “But it has also shown that businesses and people are ready to build back better. This crisis offers us the chance to radically rethink how we produce and consume food,” she says.