Climate Manifesto:
Policies to deliver action and justice

Set a target to reduce food waste

Set a new target to reduce food waste by 50% from the 2013 baseline by 2032.

The Drawdown Project ranks reducing food waste as its most-effective climate solution, with a potential to reduce global emissions by around 95,000MtCO2 over the next 30 years.²⁴¹ The current target for Scotland is to reduce food waste by 33% from the 2013 baseline by 2025. The Scottish Government has committed to produce a Food Waste Reduction Plan and Zero Waste Scotland has laid out what should be in it and the benefits it would bring, including a reduction in waste of nearly 300,000 tonnes, an economic benefit of nearly £2.7 billion and a carbon saving of 1.5% of Scotland’s annual emissions.²⁴²

However, in order to continue to reduce food waste across Scotland, a new target to reduce food waste by 50% from the 2013 baseline by 2032 should be adopted.

There is also a need to tackle food waste on farms. A WWF report found that over six billion meals’ worth of edible food goes to waste before even making it off farms in the UK.

For further information:

• New report shines spotlight on millions of tonnes of edible food going to waste on uk farms, WWF UK, 2022, https://www.wwf.org.uk/press-release/hidden-waste-report-shines-light-uk-food-waste