Written by PPL Newsroom• October 4, 2026• 5:26 am• Climate & Environment

Wasted food drives up to 10% of global emissions, nearly five times aviation, says UN

On the UN’s food waste awareness day, agencies stressed that food discarded at home, in shops and on farms is a large and fixable climate problem, and India is a big part of it.

Food that is grown but never eaten accounts for up to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). That is nearly five times the emissions of the aviation sector. The figure was highlighted again around the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, observed on 29 September 2026, because cutting waste is among the quicker ways to slow warming.

What the numbers say

The comparison covers food loss and waste along the whole chain, from farm to plate. It is not only the gas released by rotting. The UN’s climate pages describe the emissions as coming from producing, transporting and letting food decompose.

UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report 2024, written with the charity WRAP, found that the world wasted 1.05 billion metric tons of food in 2022, about one-fifth of the food available to consumers. This comes on top of 13 per cent of the world’s food lost in the supply chain between harvest and retail, as estimated by the FAO.

Most of this waste happens at home. Households were responsible for 631 million metric tons, or 60 per cent. UNEP says more than 1 billion meals are left uneaten every day. In the same year, 783 million people were affected by hunger.

Rotting food also produces methane. According to UNEP, methane traps 86 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. It is released when food buried deep in landfills is deprived of oxygen and interacts with microorganisms. UNEP adds that food waste only produces methane when deprived of oxygen, so how waste is handled matters.

Why the 2026 observance matters

This year’s theme is the “Transformative Potential of Reducing Food Loss and Waste.” The day is co-organised by the FAO and UNEP. They say that tackling the problem can bring a triple win: better food security and nutrition, less pressure on natural resources and emissions, and stronger productivity and economic growth.

Governments have also set a target. Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 aims to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030, and reduce losses along production and supply chains.

What this means for India

India is one of the largest sources of wasted food. One summary of the UNEP index puts the country’s waste at 78–80 million tonnes a year, and another ranks it second only to China. Per person, the picture is less stark. India’s household waste is 55 kg a year, lower than the 73 kg in the United States. The global average is 79 kg. The scale comes from population size, so even small gains in kitchens, markets and canteens would add up. Better storage, and keeping food scraps out of mixed landfill waste, are where city and household action could begin.

What happens next

UNEP says that food waste is higher in hotter countries, both in households and after harvest, because heat affects storage, processing and transport. That makes cold storage and efficient handling relevant for many tropical and subtropical economies, India among them.

Policy attention is still thin. WRAP’s analysis before COP29 found that 88 per cent of countries attending had no commitments on food loss or waste in their national climate plans. UN Climate Change has argued that national climate plans must be economy-wide, covering all industries, supply chains and actors.

UNEP’s former Executive Director Inger Andersen called the issue “a global tragedy.” The agencies’ message this year is that the fixes are practical. They include better planning at home, better storage and supply chains, and proper handling of the scraps that cannot be avoided.