Nature Climate Change, Published online: 01 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02597-x

Food loss and waste (FLW) is often attributed to technoeconomic inefficiencies of food systems. However, using a mechanistic analysis framework, we show that food surplus and misconsumption accounted for 11% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, exceeding FLW-associated emissions that are driven by technoeconomic constraints.
Nature Climate Change