Cities and the Future of Food: Circularity, Equity, and Urban Resilience

This webinar, co-organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the City Diplomacy Lab, brought together city officials, international practitioners, and food systems experts to explore how cities can prevent and reduce food waste as a lever toward more sustainable, equitable, and circular urban food systems. Cities consume more than 70 percent of all food produced globally, making urban food consumption one of the largest drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, material flows, and environmental pressures. At the same time, 19 percent of food available to consumers goes to waste — while 30 to 40 percent of the urban population in low-income countries faces food insecurity. Food waste reduction is a high-return climate solution with a proven return on investment of 8 to 1 for city governments. This session examined how cities can move from global evidence to local action. Drawing on UNEP's work under the Food Waste Breakthrough initiative — launched at COP30 to support the halving of global food waste by 2030 in line with SDG 12.3 — the discussion highlighted innovative approaches from three cities across three continents: London's system-level approach to mobilizing government, business, and citizens; Dar es Salaam's model of inclusive circularity through the formalization of informal waste workers; and Abu Dhabi's Ne'ma initiative combining smart redistribution infrastructure with the UAE's first national food loss and waste baseline study. More information, including the full event summary: https://www.citydiplomacylab.net/citi... Speakers: Clementine O'Connor, Sustainable Food Systems Programme Manager, UNEP Rachel Shairp, Senior Advisor, Food and Packaging Lead, ReLondon Geophrey Zenda, Principal Environmental Health Officer, Waste Management and Sanitation Unit, Dar es Salaam City Council Jelena Milicevic Lefavrais, Sustainability Manager, Emirates Foundation and Ne'ma National Food Loss and Waste Initiative Moderated by: Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi, Founding Director, City Diplomacy Lab This event is part of the Our Urban Future series, convened by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the City Diplomacy Lab. The series explores how locally grounded climate action can be accelerated through inclusive governance, more agile and accessible financing, and partnerships that connect global objectives with municipal realities.