COP29: How Your Trash Can Save the Planet

The role of waste reduction and the transition to a circular economy is increasingly recognised as a key solution to addressing the climate crisis. For the first time, the Conferences of Parties (COP) officially included waste management on its key agenda. COP29 Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste (ROW) was among the Presidency’s Pledges and Declarations at Baku and rightfully so.? On day nine of COP29, which focused on food, water, and agriculture, over 30 countries, including the United Arab Emirates , the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, Russia, Brazil, and Germany, representing 47% of global methane emissions, endorsed the COP29 Declaration on Reducing Organic Waste Methane. And Ehfaaz got a ringside view of it all.?

By signing up for this, the nations have committed to take collaborative efforts to advance solutions for avoidance, diversion, valorisation, and infrastructure in the waste sector; maximize climate, environmental, circularity, and food security benefits; promote organic waste management, tackle food loss, rebuild soils, and strengthen food systems and the bioeconomy; integrate circular economy and waste measures into climate policies, ?Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and implementation plans and enhance stakeholder collaboration, engaging farmers, waste pickers, and bioenergy suppliers in productive organic waste use. The signatories have also pledged to scale financial support for projects targeting methane emissions in the waste sector and support developing countries in upgrading waste management infrastructure and adopting circular economy practices.?

This is part of the broader Global Methane Pledge where 159 countries agree to cut methane emissions by 30% below 2020 levels by 2030.?

Global Methane Pledge

At COP26 in 2021, countries came together to launch the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) to catalyse action to reduce methane emissions. The participants met in Baku to review progress made over the last year and commit to new actions to tackle this potent greenhouse gas.?

Waste Methane Emission Reduction Plans

The highlight of the review meeting was that seven GMP participant countries, including the UAE, announced new steps taken in 2024 to reduce waste methane emissions. The UAE announced new steps to reduce methane emissions from its waste sector, including setting a landfill diversion target of 50% diversion by 2025 and 80% by 2031. The target will be met by implementing comprehensive national regulations to manage recycling facilities and recyclable waste and minimum fees for landfill disposal among other measures. While the United States highlighted the launch of its first-ever National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics and announced $117 million in new funding for waste infrastructure grants, Chile highlighted its Reciclo Orgánicos Program which is expected to reduce 9.5 million tons of CO? by 2040 and the National Organic Waste Strategy which sets a goal of moving from 1% to 66% valorization of organic waste by 2040. Currently, an Organic Waste Bill is being processed in the National Congress which would prevent organic waste from reaching landfills.

Further, at COP29, governments and philanthropy announced nearly $500 million in new grant funding for methane abatement, bringing total grant funding mobilized under the Pledge to over $2 billion. Building on this grant support, international financial institutions showcased billions in additional methane project investment.???

Not Quite up to Scratch

Despite such commitment, an UNEP report - ?An Eye on Methane: Invisible but not unseen - highlights that methane plume alerts from the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS), part of UNEP’s International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) have been ignored by countries. Released during COP29 the data reveals that the high-tech system, which identifies major methane leaks, has delivered 1,200 notifications to governments and companies over the last two years, yet just one % of notifications were responded to.?

Inger Andersen , United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Executive Director, condemned: “Governments and oil and gas companies must stop paying lip-service to this challenge when answers are staring them in the face,” He further added, “The tools are ready, the targets are set – now it is time to act.”

Certainly, It’s time to Act

In our previous article, we discussed the impacts of methane, a greenhouse gas that is significantly more potent than carbon dioxide. Global methane emissions must be reduced 40-45% by 2030 to achieve cost-effective pathways that limit global warming to 1.5°C. According to a study published by Environmental Research Letters, the atmospheric concentration of methane has risen at record speed over the past 5 years. It rose by 15, 18, 13, and 10 ppb each year from 2020 through 2023, respectively.?

An estimated 60% of today's methane emissions are the result of human activities. The majority of that come from three main sectors: approximately 40% from agriculture, 35% from fossil fuels and another 20% from solid waste and wastewater.?

Agriculture and fossil fuel related solutions

The sources of methane emissions in agriculture activities are livestock, animal manure, rice production and crop burning. Scientists are experimenting with alternative types of feed to reduce the methane produced by cows and looking at ways to manage manure more efficiently by covering it, composting it, or using it to produce biogas. As far as crop production, experts recommend alternate wetting and drying approaches that could reduce emission by 50%. Promotion of farm-scale anaerobic digestion and introduction of selective breeding are some of the methods being considered to control methane emissions.?

A 2023 report finds that rapid cuts in methane emissions from fossil fuels could avoid up to 0.1 °C in global temperature rise by mid-century – greater than the emissions impact of immediately taking all cars and trucks in the world off the road. The oil and gas industry is a significant source of methane emissions globally. The sources include venting, leakage, and flaring. Regulation of the oil and gas industry to improve infrastructure standards and practices related to methane venting and flaring are important to mitigate emission. Reducing leakage from long-distance gas transmission and distribution pipelines and carrying out pre-mining de-gasification and recovery and oxidation of methane from ventilation air from coal mines are some of the ways in which this can be controlled.?

How Waste Sector can Contribute?

When organic waste, such as food scraps and agricultural residues, is improperly disposed of in landfills, it decomposes anaerobically, releasing methane. In our previous article, we delved deeper into the subject. By diverting organic waste from landfills and utilizing it for composting, biogas production, or as a feedstock for bio-based products, we can significantly reduce methane emissions.?

Worldwide 25-30% of food is wasted, making its way to dumpsites and landfills. The less food we throw away, the fewer greenhouse gasses our waste system generates. All stakeholders from individuals, governments, retailers, food industry and consumers should work together to avoid food waste.

Organic waste could be turned into compost or biochar and be used to replace ammonia-based fertilizers, which themselves contribute to climate change. Home and neighborhood composting should be encouraged (read ‘mandated’) by the governments. Organic waste can also be turned into biogas. If managed well, biogas can replace climate-polluting fossil fuels like natural gas.??

Rehabilitating existing dumpsites or creating new engineered sanitary landfills that abide by? best practices for reduction in open burning, containment of air and water pollutants, and protection of human and environmental health are important.?

Going forward

Redirecting organic waste from landfills to circular systems such as composting, animal feed, anaerobic digestion, or energy recovery can not only mitigate emissions but also enhance soil health, improve food security, and promote sustainable agriculture. Nations should integrate organic waste management into its main agenda on NDC?

Ehfaaz has been actively advocating for the inclusion of organic waste management in climate dialogue through its participation in COPs. At COP29, we had the opportunity to contribute to discussions highlighting the untapped potential of organic waste in achieving climate goals. At this global platform, we were proud to showcase the success stories of closing the loop on organic waste through our gamut of innovative solutions which ranges from producing fertilizers, animal feed and recycled cleaning products, ensuring brand protection and offering support to businesses through training and data analysis.??