Date: Monday, 29 June 2026
Time: 10:00 – 11:15am CEST
UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 highlights the urgency of action: 1.05 billion tons of food were wasted at retail, food service, and household levels in 2022, which is equivalent to 19% of the world’s available food. Combined with food loss, this accounts for up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and USD 1 trillion in annual economic losses. Despite the scale of the issue, action remains limited, underscoring the need to translate global evidence into city-level solutions.
Cities face growing challenges across their food systems – food insecurity, unsustainable and unhealthy diets, and food waste, which place increasing pressure on natural resources, biodiversity, and public health. Today, cities consume over 70% of global food production, making them major drivers of emissions and environmental impacts, while also facing constraints in waste management and landfill capacity.
This fourth session in the Our Urban Future series, co-organized by UNEP and the City Diplomacy Lab, will explore how cities can accelerate the prevention and reduction of food waste as a lever to more sustainable, equitable, and circular urban food systems, together with experiences from three cities: Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), London (UK), and Abu Dhabi (UAE)
Drawing from the UNEP Food Waste Breakthrough initiative launched at COP30 in Brazil last year, the session will explore various city-level approaches to food waste reduction that enable cities to engage meaningfully in national food‑system pathways.
For any questions or if you are interested in participating, please contact marie.hartmann@un.org.
