Private Sector Lines Up Behind First Producer-Led Global Initiative to Halve Food Losses

NEW YORK, September 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

A global initiative committing major international food producers to tough new targets to reduce food loss and waste for the first time is to be announced today by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development at the United Nations General Assembly's Climate Week in New York.

A voluntary resolution from the Global Agri-Business Alliance (GAA) calls on private sector members to halve their own food and agricultural losses by 2030, and work with suppliers and customers to the same end, aligned with Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3. In prioritising food loss, the GAA is underscoring its ambition to address sustainability across global agricultural supply chains.

Lost and wasted food is a major contributor to climate change, consuming around 25 per cent of water used in agriculture and generating approximately eight percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, whilst 800 million people go hungry every day, and the world's population is rising, a third of all food is never consumed, costing the global economy $940 billion.

"This is very significant because it's the first ever global initiative addressing food loss supported by major agri-businesses, committing to halve their own losses by 2030," Peter White, Vice President of the World Business Council on Sustainable Development will say in New York. "WBCSD is extending support across the whole supply chain, by involving other food and agriculture initiatives, and this engagement by companies is vital, since almost all food is produced by the private sector."

The announcement is to be made during the launch of the "SDG Target 12.3 on Food Loss and Waste: 2017 Progress Report" at an exclusive Champions 12.3 event in New York. The GAA report includes a ground-breaking roadmap for achieving Target 12.3, and a summary of how countries, cities, and the private sector are making progress to date. This makes SDG Target 12.3 the only target with independent champions, mobilization, and monitoring.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), which acts as the GAA Secretariat and co-developed the new GAA Food Loss Resolution, will encourage its further adoption by other WBCSD members, which include hundreds of international companies, and use it to measure companies' progress. http://www.wbcsd.org