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If you worry about your carbon footprint but still find yourself tossing out mouldy bread or expired milk, you are not alone.<\/p>\n
Just 30 countries attending COP30 include food loss or waste in their national climate action plans, a new analysis has found, missing out on what its authors call a \u201chuge opportunity\u201d to cut planet-heating pollution.<\/p>\n
The most recent estimates from the UN Environment Program suggest a staggering 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions come from food that is never even eaten. Food ends up in the bin at every stage of the supply chain – from farms to warehouses to supermarkets to kitchens \u2013 but little effort has been spent tackling food loss and waste.<\/p>\n
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the nonprofit that carried out the analysis, is pushing for greater action of food loss and waste at COP30 today, together with two other NGOs, the Global FoodBanking Network and ReFED.<\/p>\n
\u201cReducing food waste is one of the fastest, most practical ways to cut emissions, ease pressure on supply chains, and make better use of the resources we already have,\u201d said Catherine David, CEO of WRAP.<\/p>\n
The group found small progress since they carried out the analysis last year, with six more countries having made commitments to tackle food loss and\/or waste.<\/p>\n
In total, just seven countries – United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Uruguay, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia and Indonesia – have committed to reducing both food loss and waste. The UK is the only country in Europe to address either of the issues, with a commitment to reduce food waste.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo build a truly sustainable food system, we must rethink how we value food, from farm to fork and beyond,\u201d said David.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a>Chinese emissions flatline, analysis finds China\u2019s carbon dioxide emissions have been flat or falling for 18 months, analysis reveals, adding evidence to the hope that the world\u2019s biggest polluter has managed to hit its target of peak CO2 emissions well ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n Rapid increases in the deployment of solar and wind power generation \u2013 which grew by 46% and 11% respectively in the third quarter of this year \u2013 meant the country\u2019s energy sector emissions remained flat, even as the demand for electricity increased.<\/p>\n A stacked bar chart showing Chinese CO2 emissions from energy and cement, which have begun to plateau.<\/a><\/p>\n China added 240GW of solar capacity in the first nine months of this year, and 61GW of wind, putting it on track for another renewable record<\/a> in 2025. Last year, the country installed 333GW of solar power, more than the rest of the world combined.<\/p>\n The analysis<\/a> by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea), for the science and climate policy website Carbon Brief, found China\u2019s CO2 emissions were unchanged from a year earlier in the third quarter of 2025, thanks in part to declining emissions in the travel, cement and steel industries.<\/p>\n The findings come as global leaders gather in Brazil<\/a> for Cop30, which is taking place against a backdrop of increasing urgency in the fight against the climate crisis. China\u2019s president, Xi Jinping, did not attend the leaders\u2019 summit at the UN climate conference, but the Chinese delegation are present for the talks. Xi\u2019s US counterpart, Donald Trump, also did not attend and has not sent a negotiation team.<\/p>\n Read the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of what climate negotiations are really about. This is Paul Gilbert\u2019s moving story, as told to my colleague Sandra Laville.<\/p>\n Paul Gilbert. Photograph: Jill Mead\/The Guardian<\/p>\n My mum rang me to tell me there was water coming into the house. She sounded fine, she wasn\u2019t panicking, just wanted to let me know so I wouldn\u2019t worry. But when I rang her back later, the telephone was dead.<\/p>\n When we eventually got into the house the next day, I found the phone downstairs near her body. It was floating in the water next to her; the flood waters had come in a torrent in less than two minutes from ankle to waist height.<\/p>\n My mum, Maureen Gilbert, had lived in her house in Tapton Terrace, Chesterfield, for 83 years, her whole life. I was born there 49 years ago. These houses have been up standing for 120 years, and in all the time my mum lived there, we had never had any floods until 2007, when the water probably got up to about 4ft. But this time there was nearly 6ft of water in the house.<\/p>\n I had visited her in the morning, after the flood alert was made, and left about 12 noon. I wasn\u2019t unduly worried; I glanced at the river levels as I left.<\/p>\n By 1.20pm she rang me when I was home to tell me there was water coming in. I said to her: \u201cAre you upstairs?\u201d She said she was just getting her stuff together to go upstairs. I told her to flip the electrics off and go upstairs; she has a kettle and everything up there, and I would ring her back after some calls I had to make.<\/p>\n I made a telephone call to sort out my daughter coming home from school as she was being released early. Then I rang Mum back \u2013 it was really just a few minutes later but the phone was dead.<\/p>\n It took me six hours to get across Chesterfield back to the terrace. It was chaos, water everywhere, the roads were gridlocked. It was 6.45pm when I got back to her house.<\/p>\n Read the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a008.58 EST<\/p>\n Hello, this is Ajit Niranjan taking over the blog for the next few hours. If you\u2019re in Bel\u00e9m and have something to share – or if you\u2019re a reader elsewhere with requests for what we should cover at Cop30<\/a> – just drop me an email on ajit.niranjan@theguardian.com.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Climate campaigners last night confronted agribusiness lobbyists in a protest at the AgriZone, an area outside the Cop30<\/a> summit venue sponsored by Nestl\u00e9 and Bayer.<\/p>\n The campaigners, part of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, were protesting against Brazil\u2019s having allowed industrial agriculture companies to set up shop at the summit.<\/p>\n They pointed to evidence showing that industrial agriculture is a main driver of deforestation in the Amazon and produces a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n Climate campaigners at COP30 confronted Big Agriculture lobbyists in a protest at the AgriZone, a new zone near the Cop venue dedicated to agribusiness interests and sponsored by corporate giants Nestl\u00e9 and Bayer. Photograph: handout<\/p>\n The numbers of lobbyists at Cop summits has grown in recent years. Last week the Guardian reported that more than 5,000 fossil fuel lobbyists had attended the climate talks since Cop26<\/a> in Glasgow.<\/p>\n \u201cClimate spaces must stop being complicit with all forms of extractivism creating the crisis,\u201d said Erika Xananine Calvillo Ramirez, of the Stop Financing Factory Farming Coalition. She added:<\/p>\n The agribusiness has been responsible for the water crisis in the Ngiwa Valley of Tehuacan region in Mexico, and they must stop greenwashing their image at COP30.<\/p>\n Climate protesters at the corporate-sponsored AgriZone pointed to evidence showing that industrial agriculture is a main driver of deforestation in the Amazon and produces a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Photograph: handout<\/p>\n Andrea Echeverri, of the Global Forest Coalition, said:<\/p>\n The AgriZone is nothing more than a huge greenwashing space. While social organizations and other mortals usually compete to be heard in spaces in the Blue Zone and the Green Zone, agribusinesses have a huge space dedicated to dazzling negotiators and convincing them that they are not major polluters but rather the saviors of the planet.<\/p>\n The globalized agri-food system focused on livestock does not fulfill its purpose of feeding the world because it is designed to produce money, not food.<\/p>\n Inside the AgriZone, large companies, think tanks, and supposedly independent research centers are disguising their model with their \u201cclimate-smart\u201d models, their smart seeds, their digitization, and their metrics, while they are producing a food and agricultural crisis and a countryside without peasants, and without memory and diversity.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Ethiopia set to host Cop32 in 2027<\/p>\n Cop32 will be hosted in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, Reuters reports.<\/p>\n The news agency says it has been told by Andr\u00e9 Corr\u00eaa do Lago, the Cop30<\/a> president, that countries had agreed in principle to hold the 2027 edition of the UN climate summit in the east African nation.<\/p>\n The choice still needs to be formally adopted, in a process which is expected to take place on Tuesday, but which Reuters reported that sources said would pass without a hitch.<\/p>\n If it is confirmed, it means that the host of Cop32 will be decided before the host of Cop31 has been confirmed. Both Australia and Turkey are competing to host the 2026 summit, with Australia making its bid in partnership with the Pacific Islands, which are considered to be among the world\u2019s most vulnerable places to climate change.<\/p>\n COP summits rotate around the world\u2019s regions. Ethiopia launched its bid in September, and it was unanimously selected by the Bureau of African Countries despite a rival bid from Nigeria.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Hello, this is Damien Gayle at the helm of day two of the Guardian\u2019s Cop30<\/a> liveblog coverage.<\/p>\n If you have any suggestions for things we could be covering from this year\u2019s climate talks in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil, then send me an email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Negotiations begin at Cop30 after agenda agreed Thunder, lightning and torrential rain tore down on the Cop30<\/a> conference centre in Bel\u00e9m on the opening day yesterday, but the climate gathering has so far avoided the political storms that often shake the early phases of the annual talks, writes Jonathan Watts, the Guardian\u2019s global environment writer.<\/p>\n How long the calm lasts will be clearer over the next two days, when the Brazilian presidency holds consultations with key nations on the items that will be discussed over the coming two weeks.<\/p>\n This is a diplomatic sleight of hand that has so far enabled the host to avoid the usual wrangles over the formal agenda, which have often taken several days in past conferences, holding up all other work. Yesterday, however, the agenda breezed through.<\/p>\n The Guardian can reveal a major leak on day one of Cop30 in Belem, Brazil. Photograph: Fiona Harvey\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The tough discussions over contentious items will now be wrangled in small-gatherings with the presidency, while other elements in the huge programme of talks can move ahead.<\/p>\n It is an encouraging start for the Cop president, Andr\u00e9 Corr\u00eaa do Lago, who is one of the world\u2019s most respected climate diplomats, having worked on environmental governance since the 1992 Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro \u2013 as he has reminded delegates.<\/p>\n Tougher battles lie ahead with the global political landscape continuing to create extra obstacles to progress. While many participants say they are glad the United States under Donald Trump has stayed away rather than being a disruptive presence, there is no doubt that any agreements will be weakened by the absence of the world\u2019s biggest historical emitter and wealthiest nation.<\/p>\n![\"Amy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Amy_Hawkins.png\")
Amy Hawkins<\/p>\n![\"Jonathan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762875788_177_Jonathan_Watts.jpg\")
Jonathan Watts<\/p>\n