Climate Financing for Food Banking: New Research Explores Opportunities to Scale Food Recovery
March 18, 2025 — The Global Food Banking Network (GFN), alongside various research partners, is releasing a series of reports analyzing climate financing opportunities for food banks around the world. The first in the series released today, “Carbon Markets and Financing Mechanisms for Food Banking Organizations,” was developed with Chilean environmental group, EnergyLab, and gives a high-level view of opportunities and challenges for food banks in the climate financing space. The research was made possible by the Global Methane Hub.
Food banks are unheralded actors in climate action. Around the world, we lose or waste about a third of all food we produce, and as this food rots in landfills, it generates up to 10% of all global greenhouse gas emissions and about 20% of potent methane emissions. By recovering safe, nutritious food that would otherwise end up in landfills, food banks are mitigating methane emissions, protecting our precious natural resources and feeding people in need.
The Global FoodBanking Network – in partnership with the Global Methane Hub and Carbon Trust – developed the FRAME (Food Recovery to Avoid Methane Emissions) Methodology to enable food banks to precisely measure their environmental impact. The research series launching today analyzes what they can do with that data.
“Thanks to the FRAME methodology, food banks can get the precise data to show their positive climate impact and, as such, can explore climate financing options to scale their work,” said Lisa Moon, president and CEO of The Global FoodBanking Network. “Research with our partners at EnergyLab doesn’t dictate what food banks should do in the world of climate finance, but rather, provides the crucial knowledge that will allow food banks themselves to pursue options for financing that can enable more food recovery, something that is good for people and the planet.”
“This study highlights how carbon pricing instruments—both within regulated and voluntary markets—can serve as a key financing mechanism for food banking operations, transforming waste reduction efforts into verified climate impact,” said Cristián Mosella, managing director at EnergyLab. “By leveraging emissions reductions as tradable assets, food banks can access diverse funding streams while contributing to global decarbonization goals. However, the choice of mechanism entails trade-offs between market accessibility, credit valuation, and the rigor of monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) requirements. Understanding this balance is essential to unlocking scalable, high-integrity solutions that enhance both climate and food resilience.”
“Carbon Markets and Financing Mechanisms for Food Banking Organizations” lays out public and private financing options and how food banks may fit into the wide range of existing schemes. There are a variety of opportunities that food banks with robust data on their climate impact could have available to them, including:
National determined contributions (NDCs): public financing made available under targets set per the Paris Agreement.
Carbon pricing mechanisms: national or subnational government schemes incentivizing companies to offset emissions.
Voluntary carbon markets: systems that allow private firms to mitigate GHG emissions by financing project that reduce emissions.
Insetting: a company directly supporting an emissions-reducing project in exchange for being credited for the emissions reduction. Ie: a restaurant invests in a food bank in exchange for the emissions reduction impact of donating surplus food to a food bank.
Green bonds: issued by governments, municipalities, corporations or other entities to raise funds for climate focused projects.
Currently, the food and beverage industry represents only ~3% of carbon credits retired since 2020 but is projected to significantly increase its demand relative to other sectors, providing a unique opportunity for food banks to align with buyers in the space.
However, there are many issues food banks must consider before entering the space, including:
National regulations and international treaties
Scaling and project size necessary to justify credits
Monitoring and insufficient data on food loss and waste
Timing and the gap between project execution and credit issuance
Liquidity and demand at the time of issuance
Access to markets with higher carbon prices
Certification programs
The report serves as an important primer for how food banks can explore opportunities in green finance.
Complementary research with partners at Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic and PIMCO will be released in the coming weeks.
All research, as well as the details and results of the FRAME methodology, can be found here.
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ABOUT THE GLOBAL FOODBANKING NETWORK
Food banking offers a solution to both chronic hunger and the climate crisis. GFN works with partners in over 50 countries to recover and redirect food to those who need it. In 2023, our network provided food to more than 40 million people, reducing food waste and creating healthy, resilient communities. We help the food system function as it should: nourishing people and the planet together. Learn more at foodbanking.org
ABOUT ENERGYLAB
With more than 15 years of experiences, EnergyLab is a leader in developing and implementing climate action, decarbonization, and circular economy strategies in various sectors and industries in Latin America. EnergyLab specializes in identifying climate risks and opportunities, monitoring and certifying carbon footprint and CO2e reduction under international standards and creating innovative technological solutions to drive corporate sustainability. www.energylab.cl
ABOUT GLOBAL METHANE HUB
The Global Methane Hub is a first-of-its-kind philanthropic alliance to support methane emissions reduction around the world. A super pollutant, methane is responsible for more than 45 percent of recent global warming. To reduce methane pollution for a chance to save our climate within our lifetime, Global Methane Hub organizes and convenes governments, industry leaders, scientists, and nonprofit organizations across the globe to minimize methane pollution through technology and common-sense public policies and regulations. Since 2021, the Global Methane Hub has catalyzed over $10 billion in methane reducing project investments by convening funders focused on addressing climate change, raised $500 million in pooled funds from more than 20 of the largest climate philanthropies to accelerate methane mitigation worldwide, and strategically regranted $200 million to over 100 grantees conducting methane reduction work in 152 countries. To learn more about Global Methane Hub, visit globalmethanehub.org.
