Cutting methane emissions is one of the fastest, most efficient ways to make meaningful strides to mitigate climate change — since it is far more potent than CO₂ but shorter-lived.
Food recovery, which is the specialty of food banks, is a readily available way to help us cut methane emissions. But historically, commitments to and investments in food recovery, at least as a climate solution, have been few and far between.
That’s where the Global Methane Hub, The Global FoodBanking Network and food banks come in.
The Global Methane Hub is an international alliance that has committed more than $300 million toward supporting the development and implementation of tangible methane reduction solutions. In 2022, the Hub committed $1.25 million to The Global FoodBanking Network to quantify, track and communicate the contributions food banks make in global climate mitigation efforts and incentivize investment and policy action.
“Methane is such a big deal, because it is a short-life climate pollutant,” said Carolina Urmeneta, director of waste and circular economy programs at the Global Methane Hub, on GFN’s Food For Change podcast. “That means it lasts around 12 years in the atmosphere, which is very different from what we have with CO2, which lasts around 100 years. And the global warming potential [during] the lifetime of methane is 86 times more than CO2.”
Since methane has a short life but a potent detrimental impact, Urmeneta calls methane the “emergency break” for the climate crisis, saying it could shift the trajectory of global temperature increases relatively quickly.
Urmeneta notes that 60% of methane comes from the food and agricultural sector, where there is already a readily available solution to one of the significant contributors to these emissions — food that is lost or wasted, which then rots and produces the greenhouse gas.
“We need to find a solution, but the solution is not new, right?” Urmeneta said. “What we’re talking about is food loss and waste prevention first, and then recovery. And when we talk about recovery, we’re talking about, for example, food banks and food donation.
“The thing is that the solutions are here, and they are cost effective. So what is missing? It’s that we haven’t had enough data to make the decisions. But we’re working on that.”
From 2018 until 2022, Urmeneta served as the head of climate change for Chile’s Ministry of Environment. At that time, she thought food recovery was a promising way to cut methane emissions, but it was difficult for her to prove or push forward.
“When we discussed food loss and waste prevention and recovery, I was like, okay, what is the data that we have available in my country, right?” Urmeneta said. “It was not tons of data. We didn’t really have good information to establish a baseline, then establish a goal, a target.”
Now, as a part of Global Methane Hub, Urmeneta is trying to change that for governments across the globe.
“What we are doing, for example, with The Global FoodBanking Network, is great news,” she said. “We have a methodology — Recuperación de alimentos para evitar emisiones de metano, or FRAME. Why is it important? Because if you have the data, then you can do the management, then you can set the targets. And then you could work on policies.”
The FRAME methodology is a standardized and scalable methodology that quantifies and tracks food recovery and its impact. It helps food banks improve their management and efficiency, but the improved data collection also helps promote food recovery to governments and businesses.
“We need data to make decisions,” Urmeneta said. “And as soon as you have that, you can start really good discussions with decision-makers on how to promote food donation, what is needed. And those are the types of discussions that we are promoting because of this methodology and because of the new and improved data that is available now.”
The FRAME methodology was piloted with GFN members in Ecuador, with Banco de Alimentos Quito, and Mexico, with five food bank members of Red Bancos de Alimentos Mexico, or BAMX. Mariana Jiménez, the general director of BAMX, says the ability to quantify methane emissions mitigated by the food recovery might ultimately lead to more food recovered, donated and distributed in Mexico.
“Now that we have this information, it’s going to be easier for us to change the current [national governmental] policies and incentivize more food donation,” Jiménez said.
The improved data collection from the FRAME methodology has also sparked interest from the private sector, strengthening existing partnerships and opening doors to new ones.
“I believe our [corporate] donors are very interested in the impact that their donations are having,” Jiménez said. “Not only to demonstrate to their consumers that they’re making a positive impact on the environment but also so they know that food donation is a cost-effective way for them to reduce food waste, food insecurity and methane emissions.”
As the FRAME methodology expands to more GFN members in the next phase, Jimenez says all 59 food banks in the BAMX network will be involved eventually.
Urmeneta is hopeful that continued growth of the methodology will contribute to significant shifts in methane mitigation work.
“We have the methodology, so now we can scale,” Urmeneta said. “We have the opportunity to get results, in a short period, on methane mitigation. We could have a shift on the temperature. So let’s do it, right? Let’s move from commitments to action. Let’s use the methodology to make decisions and get into the action. That’s what we need.”
