UNEP at UN Food Systems Summit

Name: UNEP at UN Food Systems Summit
Start: 2021-09-23

23 September 2021

Overview

Other events

Under the leadership of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the UN Food Systems Summit took place on Thursday, 23 September 2021. It was a completely virtual event during the UN General Assembly High-level Week.

The UN Food Systems Summit served as a historic opportunity to empower all people to leverage the power of food systems to drive our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and get us back on track to achieve all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Over the past 18 months, the Summit has brought together all UN Member States and constituencies around the world – including thousands of youth, food producers, Indigenous Peoples, civil society, researchers, private sector, and the UN system – to bring about tangible, positive changes to the world’s food systems. As a people’s summit and a solutions summit, it has recognized that everyone, everywhere must take action and work together to transform the way the world produces, consumes, and thinks about food.

The Summit culminated in this inclusive global process, offering a catalytic moment for public mobilization and actionable commitments by heads of state and government and other constituency leaders to take this agenda forward.

Through this people’s summit, the UN reaffirmed its commitment to promote human rights for all and ensure everyone, everywhere has the opportunity to participate. The event was open to all through its virtual programme and platform.

Together we can and must leverage the power of our food systems to achieve all of our shared goals for people, planet, and prosperity.

Related content

Speech: People, Food and Nature

1. Multimedia exhibition - Beyond Urban Agriculture - How can architecture contribute to fresher food supply?

On the occasion of the UN Food System Summit, UNEP and YALE Centre for Ecosystems and Architecture, have installed a living green wall system called the Active Modular Phytoremediation System (AMPS) to demonstrate how besides providing fresh food, building integrated agricultural systems may contribute other ecosystems services to urban environment such as cleaning the air, reduce energy consumption, promote local ecosystems, decrease stress and improve indoor environments.

2. The Stream, Al Jazeera - What can be done to reduce food waste?

After decades of decline, the number of hungry people has been growing for the past five years, now amounting to as many as 811 million people, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). On the other hand, millions of people are affected by obesity and other non-communicable diseases associated with unhealthy diets and consumption patterns. As world leaders meet at the first UN Food System Summit, Michelin star chef and the UNEP's Goodwill Ambassador Massimo Bottura discusses the need to reduce food waste, healthy and sustainable food, and cooking practices.

Speaker: Massimo Bottura, Chef, Co-founder of Food for Soul, UNEP Goodwill Ambassador

Host: Femi Oke

3. Independent Dialogue on Sustainable Cold Chains and the Rome Declaration

The dialogue was organized by Italy, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Ozone Secretariat, with support of Cool Coalition, Climate & Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and OzonAction. The objective of the dialogue was to spotlight the Rome Declaration and the Kigali Amendment of the Montreal Protocol, addressing sustainable cold chains and food loss reduction. The event brought together experts and government officials on a wide range of perspectives on cold chains.

4. Virtual exhibition on Sustainable Cold Chains

The Ozone Secretariat and OzonAction launched, on World Ozone Day, a virtual exhibition on Sustainable Cold Chain Technologies. With the help of independent experts and partner organizations, call for nominations for technologies and game changer/system approaches have been distributed. The exhibition was featured during the UN Food Systems Summit and will be displayed during the 33rd Meeting of Parties to the Montreal Protocol (23 - 29 October 2021) and beyond.

5. Status of the Global Food Cold-Chain

The UNEP-led Cool Coalition in collaboration with the Climate & Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), UNEP, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), OzonAction and the Ozone Secretariat, with the support of the Italian Government, are producing a status report on the global food cold-chain, which will include case studies to show the current state and development across areas such as technologies, design approaches, finance and business models, policy, and planning. The full report will be published in December 2021. A short summary of the report is available here.