The Post-2015 Development Agenda: How Food Loss and Waste (FLW) Reduction Can Contribute Towards Environmental Sustainability and the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

The issue of global food loss and waste (FLW), specifically its environmental dimension, was presented at the Dresden Nexus Conference 2015 under the umbrella “Global Change, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Nexus Approach”. This working paper continues the debate on FLW in the context of sustainable development and explores how FLW reduction can contribute to the achievement of the SDGs, emphasising the broader environmental impacts. Reduction of FLW is explicitly captured under SDG 12, which aims to halve per capita food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses by 2030. However, as this paper suggests, reducing global food losses and waste could potentially have more extensive and cascading effects that would help facilitate progress towards wider environmental sustainability.