2023 Food Waste Solutions Summit

Clementine O’Connor is the food waste focal point at the United Nations Environment Programme.

UNEP is custodian of the SDG 12.3 food waste indicator, the Food Waste Index, which tracks country-level progress towards halving food waste by 2030. Clementine co-authored the 2021 Food Waste Index Report, developing new global food waste estimates and a common methodology for countries to measure and report on food waste. To help member states get started, Clementine is hosting Regional Food Waste Working Groups, in Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and West Asia, to provide training on measurement and national food waste reduction strategies, which will launch shortly with partner WRAP.

UNEP convenes International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste with FAO on September 29th each year. For the inaugural Food Loss and Waste Day in 2020, Clementine developed the Kitchen Memories mini campaign with the Edible Schoolyard Project, providing lesson plans to draw on ancestral and grandmother wisdom to reconnect with the value of food and reduce food waste in the kitchen.

Prior to joining UNEP as Programme Management Officer, Clementine helped to create and launch Champions 12.3, a high-level coalition to deliver SDG 12.3, as a consultant to the World Resources Institute and UNEP, and led capacity building and research on food waste reduction at regional and country-level (Asia Pacific, Latin America, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa).

Clementine was lead author of the European Commission’s Preparatory Study on Food Waste in the EU27 published in 2010, developing the first EU food waste baseline and environmental impact assessment, and as well as many policy recommendations that have now implemented.

She studied political science at Georgetown and Edinburgh Universities.