Seven years ago, the European Commission signed up to
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3 to halve food
waste by 2030, but the EU is nowhere near on track to meet
this goal. The European Parliament called for the EU to set
targets to halve food waste in 2012, and again for them
to introduce legally binding 50% farm-to-fork targets in
2017. In recognition of its commitment to SDG 12.3 and
the accelerating impacts of the climate crisis, momentum
to reduce food waste in the EU is building. In 2018, the
European Commission adopted the amended Waste
Framework Directive (WFD), which binds EU member states
to begin measuring and reporting their food waste from
2020 onwards. The Commission is currently developing
proposals for legally binding food waste targets for EU
member states, including critical decisions about their
ambition (with options ranging from 20% to 50% by 2030)
and their scope (retail and consumer level only, or from
farm to fork). This presents a remarkable opportunity for
the EU to act decisively and ambitiously on food waste,
particularly at a time when the global food system is
revealing its fragility. This report urges the European Commission to set a legally binding target of a 50%, farm-to-fork reduction in food waste by 2030.
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Authors
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- United Kingdom