Act Now to Halve Global Food Waste by 2030, End Age of Unchecked Methane Pollution, Secretary-General Urges Leaders’ Round Table

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Act Now to Halve Global Food Waste by 2030, End Age of Unchecked Methane Pollution, Secretary-General Urges Leaders' Round Table

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres' remarks to the Leaders' Round Table: Zero Waste, Circularity and Methane, in Antalya, Türkiye, today:

I thank the First Lady of Türkiye for her tireless leadership of the Zero Waste movement - including as Chair of my Advisory Board - and for placing methane in the spotlight at this Conference of the Parties (COP). And I commend Türkiye for making this a zero-waste COP.

Zero waste starts with a stark understanding: Our world is drowning in trash. Every year, we generate more than 2 billion tons of municipal waste. Every day, the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic is dumped into our ocean, rivers and lakes. Electronic waste is growing five times faster than we recycle it. And billions still have no waste collection at all.

People pay the price. Open burning poisons the air children breathe. Microplastics pollute our food, our water and our bodies. Dumpsites contaminate water and soil. Nowhere is waste more indefensible than with food. Every day, we throw away enough food for a billion meals - while hundreds of millions go hungry.

Waste is also heating our planet - above all through methane. Food loss and waste generates 8 to 10 per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Food rotting in landfills keeps releasing methane for decades. Waste and wastewater account for around a fifth of human-made methane emissions. And methane is responsible for nearly a third of global warming today.

Cutting it is one of our fastest ways to limit the overshoot of 1.5°C. That is why, in June, I launched a Call to Action on Methane - across waste, agriculture and fossil fuels. The fossil fuel industry has the means, the technology and the responsibility to cut fastest. Yet, its methane emissions are still rising - while regulations are being rolled back or delayed.

The waste is staggering. In 2025, some 167 billion cubic metres of gas were flared - nearly as much as Africa consumes in a year. That is an estimated $54 billion going up in smoke - and heating our planet. Around 30 per cent of fossil fuel methane emissions could be cut at no net cost. Satellites now spot major leaks.

Since 2023, the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Methane Alert and Response System has issued more than 5,000 alerts. Barely one in eight has received a response. We can see the pollution. We know who is responsible. And we know how to stop it.

Voluntary action is no longer enough. That is why I have called for a global near-zero methane standard for oil and gas. Today, I am asking the United Nations Environment Programme to develop it - a credible, science-based benchmark built on robust measurement, reporting and verification. And it can become the founding of a global market for near-zero methane oil and gas. I urge you all to rally behind it.

The good news is that zero waste solutions are already delivering. Japan has cut food waste by more than half. In Durban, Dhaka and Kampala, organic waste is becoming compost, fertilizer and animal feed - cutting costs and creating jobs. And a circular economy could deliver a net gain of more than $100 billion a year by 2050.

The era of pledges is over. The world needs action. That means halving food waste by 2030, ending open dumping and burning, capturing methane from landfills and wastewater, designing products to last, and making producers responsible for what they sell, concluding an ambitious global treaty to end plastic pollution, and getting finance to cities for collection, composting and circular infrastructure.

On methane, I ask Governments to enforce strong rules and create incentives to prevent, recover and responsibly manage waste; producers to end routine flaring and venting, and fix leaks; buyers to demand verified reductions; and investors to make methane performance count.

Zero waste means clean air and water, healthier communities, decent jobs and a fairer use of our planet's resources allowing economies and societies to thrive. Let us move from managing waste to preventing it, shift to a circular economy - and end the age of unchecked methane pollution.