COP26 organisers have unveiled food and catering plans for the key climate summit in Glasgow, which starts on Sunday.
The menus on offer at the summit will be affordable, with all food options to have a strong focus on sustainability. 80 per cent of the food is to be seasonal and sourced from Scotland.
95 per cent of the food on offer will be from the UK overall, reducing associated emissions and promoting environmentally friendly food production.
Organisers have said that the event catering will set an example for other large-scale international conferences. To avoid food wastage, similar and replicated ingredients will be used across all the event’s menus, ensuring that any produce can be repurposed for other meals. Reusable cups will also be used, a move which is estimated to avoid as many as 250,000 single-use cups entering the UK waste system.
Meanwhile, food suppliers for the event have already made their own strides in sustainable food production. Mara Seaweed, one supplier based in Edinburgh, runs a sustainable operation which doesn’t require fertilizer, fresh water or soil to grow its product.
Benzies, another supplier that produces carrots and potatoes, uses wind turbines to power its cool storage, actively recycles any water it uses and takes heating energy from biomass fuels.
Alok Sharma, the COP26 president-designate, was excited about the innovation across the event’s food options to help keep sustainability at its heart.
He said: “There will be a tremendous amount of work to be done at COP26, with many hours of negotiations and long days, so the choice of food that we serve our visiting delegations, staff and all our volunteers, is very important.
“It is exciting to see such innovation in the menus that will be on offer and to understand the thought and effort that has gone into making dishes both healthy, sustainable and suitable for different diets and requirements.
“We very much look forward to giving our international visitors a flavour of the wide-ranging cuisine the UK has to offer.”
Kevin Watson, business director at SEC Food added: “We have worked hard to create low carbon menus that are accessible to all. We hope our sustainable food strategy will shape menus of the future as we all work to protect our planet. As well as providing great tasting and nutritious food, our menus are focused on local and seasonal sourcing, with a plant-forward approach. We have been delighted to showcase and work with so many local Scottish suppliers and our teams are looking forward to supporting the event.”
The COP26 summit commences this Sunday [October 31] and will end on November 12, 2021. The event seeks to bring world leaders together to insight action toward cutting carbon emissions and keeping the aims of the Paris Agreement in reach.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
