“If food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third largest greenhouse gases emitter, behind the United States and China”. According to Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) assessment on 2011, one-third of all food produced in the world for human consumption never reached the consumer’s table.

It is equivalent to 1.3 billion tons of fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, seafood, and grains rotten on the farm, lost during distribution, or are thrown away in grocery stores, restaurants, and home kitchens. This is also about four times the amount of food needed to feed nearly 800 million people on the planet who went to bed hungry each night.

Food wastage does not only pose a huge economic burden and crucial social problem but it gives a huge impact on the climate change. Food waste which ends up in landfills will produce methane gas. Methane gas is one of the greenhouse gases that warming up the Earth.

Based on the estimation figures from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), methane, a short-lived climate pollutant are 86 times more warming over a 20-year period than the same amount of carbon dioxide.

Besides, according to an assessment by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2017, 6.7 percent of all global greenhouse gases come from food waste. If food waste were a country, it would be the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind the U.S. and China.

Apart from releasing greenhouse gases, food waste has caused the water wastage as well. According to UN report, the water wastage alone would be the equivalent of the entire annual flow of the Volga, Europe's largest river.

Meanwhile in terms of energy consumption for the production, harvesting, transporting, and packaging of that wasted food generates more than 3.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. Water wastage and energy wastage due to food wastage are totally the culprit of the extreme climate change.

However, among the causes of climate change, food waste is perhaps the easiest to deal with as everyone can make an impact in their daily lives. Individually, everyone can save money and reduce the climate impact by planning meals and only buying food that are necessary for us.

In addition, reducing meat intake and buying local products could reduce our carbon footprint. Furthermore, controlling the portion size is not only helpful for health reasons but actually to reduce waste. Last but not least is to recycle the food waste to fertilisers by composting the uneaten leftovers and other spoiled food into the compost bin.

There are many ways to reduce food waste, however according to Connect4Climate Organisation, good communication can be instrumental in informing and educating people on how wasting food impacts climate change, as well as its many other consequences. Thus, the most important part to combat food waste and climate change is by educating people and raise their awareness on this food waste matters.

Nur Imani binti Abdullah

Forum Air Malaysia