Why Climate Finance Must Tackle Food Loss and Waste

Every harvest season in Africa, food is lost or wasted at staggering levels. Nigeria loses 45% of its 3.9 million tons of tomato harvest each year to postharvest losses and supply chain inefficiencies. Kenya loses up to 40% of the food it produces–around 9 million tons worth KES 72 billion (approximately US$578 million)–even as one in four citizens struggles daily to find enough to eat. In South Africa, about a third of all food ends up at the dump. These are not isolated failures. They are symptoms of a global crisis. On average, one-third of all food produced never gets eaten, generating 8–10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If food loss and waste were a country, it would be the world’s third-largest emitter.

On 29 September, the world marked the sixth International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, a reminder that cutting waste is essential to a sustainable food future. My message is simple: we cannot fix the climate without fixing food waste. Yet today, less than 6% of public climate finance in food systems targets reducing loss and waste. We are starving the very solutions that could feed people and protect the planet. It is time to expand and align stakeholder efforts, and to channel climate finance where it matters most–into reducing food loss and waste.

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