COP30, Food Systems & the Future of Catering: Why Good Food Is a Leadership Decision
This month the world turns to Belém for COP30, and it’s looking like it could be the first climate summit to put food systems at the centre of the global climate agenda. Quite frankly, a pivotal moment. After decades of negotiations, from Kyoto to Paris, there is finally widespread recognition that the way we grow, produce and consume food is not only a top driver of the climate and nature crises, but also one of our most powerful levers for change.
It seems we were off to a good start and then unfortunately, reports this week have highlighted that at the COP30 venue, vendors were sold out before 3pm and vegetarian and vegan options were scarce, despite calls from Sir Paul McCartney and PETA for a fully plant-based food offering.
Something we repeatedly see, a symbol of a deeper issue: our systems - even in climate spaces, may be verbally advocating but not yet actively demonstrating the transformation we urgently need.
The UK’s Role at COP30
The UK arrives at COP30 with an opportunity for genuine leadership. Its commitments include:
Farmer-led regenerative agriculture
Methane reduction
A national food waste breakthrough
A just transition for UK farmers
Cutting synthetic nitrogen fertiliser dependency
Supporting agroecology and organic principles
Transparent, deforestation-free supply chains
But leadership requires legislation, not pledges, and real alignment between national targets and what ends up on people’s plates.
The Catering Gap: A Missed Opportunity at COP
The irony of inadequate, non–climate-aligned catering at COP30 underscores the need for change. Catering feeds thousands daily. It shapes demand, emissions, health, and supply chains at a massive scale. If even the leading climate summits cannot model the food system we need, it’s clear how far the world has to go.
As the UK’s first female-founded B Corp catering company, we believe:
Corporate catering must actively support regenerative supply chains
Food waste must be designed out of operations, it must be part of menu planning
Plant-forward menus must be default, not occasional
The real cost of food - environmental, ethical and human, must guide procurement
Voluntary Solutions Won’t Save the Planet
Climate scientists have been clear: industry’s preferred voluntary approaches - carbon offsets, biofuels, and “efficiency” measures, cannot deliver the deep, sustained emissions cuts required to preserve a habitable planet.
These mechanisms maintain business-as-usual. And that is precisely why large food corporations favour them: they protect current high-emission models instead of transforming them.
The truth is simple:
There is no credible pathway to climate stability without changing how we farm, what we grow, and what we eat.
What Real Climate Action Requires
A climate-aligned food system demands systemic transformation, including:
Sourcing from regenerative, low-impact, resilient farms
Halving food waste within the decade
Shifting diets away from the highest-emission foods
Ending agriculture’s dependence on fossil fuels and synthetic nitrogen fertilisers
Building deforestation-free supply chains
Reducing reliance on ultra-processed ingredients linked to ecosystem collapse
These are not marginal tweaks. They are structural shifts.
Good Food Is a Leadership Decision
Food system transformation is one of the most powerful climate solutions available to us. But it requires courage, transparency, and a willingness to rethink how we feed people at scale.
At pow Food, we choose to lead with integrity: sourcing better, supporting low-impact farming, reducing waste, and prioritising health - for people and planet.
COP30 shows what’s possible.
But the food we serve, whether in workplaces or at a climate conference, will determine whether we actually get there.
Good food is a leadership decision. And leadership is needed now more than ever.
