Guterres urges food waste cuts by 2030, seeks global methane standard

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on leaders meeting in Antalya, Türkiye, on November 11 to cut food waste in half by 2030 and sought a new global standard to curb methane from oil and gas.

Addressing a round table on zero waste, circularity and methane, Guterres said voluntary efforts were insufficient. According to his remarks published by the United Nations, he asked its Environment Programme, UNEP, to devise a near-zero methane benchmark grounded in science, with emissions measured, reported and verified.

His waste proposals included stopping open dumping and burning, recovering methane at landfill and wastewater facilities, and funding city services such as collection and composting. He also pressed for products that last longer, greater producer responsibility and an ambitious international treaty against plastic pollution.

Guterres linked those measures to climate action, saying food loss and waste produced between 8 and 10 per cent of greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide. Waste and wastewater contributed roughly a fifth of methane emissions caused by human activity, he said.

He attributed nearly a third of current global warming to methane and described reducing it as a rapid way to limit warming beyond 1.5°C. Discarded food can keep emitting the gas for decades as it decomposes in landfills, he said.

On fossil fuels, Guterres said the industry could reduce methane more quickly than other sectors but that its emissions were increasing while rules were delayed or weakened. He estimated that about 30 per cent of its methane emissions could be eliminated without a net cost.

He cited a low response rate to UNEP’s Methane Alert and Response System: it had sent over 5,000 alerts from 2023 onwards, but responses had followed barely one out of every eight, he said.

Guterres also put the volume of gas flared during 2025 at about 167 billion cubic metres, worth an estimated $54 billion. He compared that volume with almost an entire year of gas consumption in Africa.

The proposals follow a methane initiative that Guterres said he launched in June, covering agriculture, waste and fossil fuels. His appeal extended beyond emissions: billions of people lacked waste collection, he said, while discarded food each day could provide a billion meals.

He urged governments to enforce tougher rules and give incentives for better waste management. Producers should repair leaks and stop routine venting and flaring, buyers should require verified emissions cuts, and investors should consider methane performance, he said.