APEC Summit: FAO says radical transformation needed to address food loss & energy transition | FAO News

Lima – The Director-General of the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, today called for a radical transformation in how we produce, process, trade, & consume food, as he discussed reducing food loss & waste & securing clean energy for agrifood systems at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Lima.

FAO’s Director-General was invited to address an APEC Ministerial Session on Sustainable Growth for a Resilient Development in the Peruvian capital.

Asked how best to improve efforts to reduce food loss & waste in the Asia Pacific region, Qu noted that the global value of food lost between harvest & retail amounts to $400 billion, & that 1.4 billion hectares of cropland & pasture area, as well as 250 cubic kilometres of water, are used for growing food that is eventually lost & wasted. Meanwhile, 18.1 percent of the population cannot afford healthy diets.

The Director-General said that to fix this problem, we need to target specific loss hotspots & use innovation, technology, & investment, including in data collection.

In this regard, FAO has developed tools such as the FAO Food Loss Index & the FAO Food Loss App, examples of knowledge for action & targeted results.

“The need to reduce food loss & waste is higher than before & a necessary condition to tackle current & future challenges, & to achieve the Four Betters,” Qu said.

“It will help deliver a better environment, by saving natural resources; better nutrition, by improving the access to healthy, but perishable products; & a better life, by improving the income of food producers,” the Director-General said. Adding that “to fix this problem, we need to take action to deliver better production all along the value chains”.

A just energy transition

The meeting also discussed how best to guarantee a just energy transition for all sectors of societies. According to FAO, we need to prepare for feeding a global population of almost 10 billion by 2050, while adapting to climate change & not exceeding the 1.5 degrees threshold of global warming.

Producing enough food for the world—from the producer to the consumer—uses about 30 percent of all energy, & energy use results in over a third of greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood systems.   

Clean energy

Discussions turned to the need to scale up the benefits of promising energy sources, such as clean & low-carbon hydrogen, in the region.

One-third of the world’s food is lost or wasted annually, along with the related energy used in the sector & the associated greenhouse gas emissions.

Specifically, the lack of effective refrigeration systems directly results in the loss of 526 million tons of food production, or 12 percent of the global total. In a world where the number of hungry people is rising, we cannot permit the loss of tonnes of edible food.

FAO’s proposed solutions start by acknowledging that annual clean energy investments worldwide will need to triple by 2030 to reach $4 trillion if we want to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Solutions also need to be better integrated & prioritised within national policies & National Determined Contributions. Farmers need to be supported if we are to implement innovative, green energy solutions. & there must be a just energy transition in the agrifood sector to ensure equal access to the energy services & technologies required.

Over the last twenty years, FAO has been facilitating access to sustainable modern energy, working closely with governments & partners. This is fundamental for the transformation of agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, & more sustainable to achieve the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, & a better life, leaving no one behind.