Open letter to governments and industry

Food systems must be transformed to address climate change

Today, our global food systems contribute over one-third of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Despite the urgent need for decarbonisation, investment in this sector remains minimal: just 4%¹ of climate finance supports food systems, highlighting a pressing disconnect between climate goals and current financial priorities.

As the world tackles food security for a growing population, the challenge of creating resilient, sustainable food systems must extend beyond the farm. This should include the often-overlooked 'hidden middle'— situated between the farm gate and the consumer — which plays a critical role in addressing climate change and enhancing supply chain resilience, contributing up to 40%² of the economic value added in agri-food value chains.

No NDC 3.0 is complete without the inclusion of food system transformation across the entirety of the chain

One effective pathway to achieve this transformation is through the integration of comprehensive food systems policies in revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs 3.0), which are commitments made by countries as part of the Paris Agreement to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Currently, NDCs tend to focus on agricultural production and healthy diets. This narrow focus may neglect the wider food value chain that ensures food security and supports the sustainable development of global food systems. With the submission of the updated NDCs expected in 2025, Tetra Pak is harnessing its unique position at the heart of the world’s food systems to call for action in unlocking the benefits of the 'hidden middle'.

By integrating comprehensive food systems policies into NDCs 3.0, governments can incentivise sustainable food production and distribution, helping improve food security and conserve resources. By adopting low-carbon packaging, optimising processing to reduce energy and water usage, and exploring alternative food sources, we can ensure access to safe, nutritious food while minimising food waste and the environmental impact of traditional agricultural practices. These efforts are essential now to deliver on climate goals and drive climate resilience.

Unlocking the potential of the 'hidden middle'

With a global presence and advanced manufacturing capabilities, Tetra Pak regularly collaborates with stakeholders across the value chain, from farmers and food producers, to suppliers, policy makers and consumers, which means it can act as a solutions partner of food systems transformation.

Building on our four pathways for action to enable food systems transformation, we are calling on governments and industry to:

1. Rebalance climate finance to increase and “ring-fence” investment and incentives across the full agri-food chains, including in the 'hidden middle'.

Global mechanisms can address food security and inequity, support vulnerable nations, promote sustainable development, and enhance global stability. In particular, targeted national-level financial incentives, including grants and concessional loans, should be provided for food manufacturers, especially SMEs.

These investments and incentives should be used to support food system transformation, through the deployment and scaling-up of already available and proven solutions for commercial food production, to build future-fit food systems that meet the challenges of a growing global population.

Governments can also fund joint R&D initiatives that bring together public and private sector partners, to foster innovation in the food sector.

These mechanisms should enable food manufacturers:

• To invest in new solutions which save direct and indirect GHG emissions, energy and water use, and help reduce food loss and waste, thereby lowering the carbon footprint of food systems.
• To upgrade installed equipment to optimise food production while reducing resource use. Improving performance is vital for reaching sustainability goals, as a more efficient plant is a more sustainable plant, and a plant that reduces food loss and waste.

Tetra Pak calls for such support to be contingent on new solutions and upgrades delivering a demonstrable reduction in GHG emissions and/or a reduction in food loss and waste in processing lines.

Such support should also require manufacturers and their suppliers to confirm how investments enhance supply chain resilience, support food security, promote sustainable economic development, ensure social stability, create market certainty for farmers, and improve livelihoods.

2. Unlock the food systems' 'hidden middle' with transformative, incentive-driven policies in NDCs 3.0.

Tetra Pak believes that NDCs 3.0 should be outcome-focused and include plans, projects or enabling policies which focus on:

• Improving and upgrading processing, packaging, transportation and storage infrastructure to enable food supply chain resilience. By leveraging the 'hidden middle' of food systems, food can be made more accessible and affordable, while food loss and waste can be reduced for a wider population enjoying nutritious products safely.
• Improving food security and nutrition for vulnerable populations, for instance, by encouraging Public-Private Partnerships. Examples include collaborative projects to develop fortified foods for school feeding programs.
• Supporting SMEs, including smallholder farmers and others across the 'hidden middle' of the agri-food chains, by building infrastructure and providing access to capability building and extension services.
• Reducing food loss and waste throughout the value chain through, for instance, the setting of binding reduction targets, including at the processing stage.

Signed,
Tetra Pak