Ecuador's Second NDC 2026-2035: Quito Food Bank and Climate Mitigation Initiatives

Background

Ecuador established a global precedent by becoming the first country to formally include food banks as climate mitigation initiatives in its updated NDC. This groundbreaking integration addresses the critical gap between food security and climate action, recognising that food recovery organisations serve a dual purpose: reducing methane emissions from food loss and waste while enhancing community resilience.

The integration responds to Ecuador's commitment under the Global Methane Pledge established at COP26 (Glasgow, 2021), which set a voluntary framework supporting countries to adopt measures aimed at collectively reducing methane emissions by 30% by 2030 compared to 2020 levels, and the Paris Agreement Article 4.3 requirement for progressive ambition. Ecuador recognised that traditional climate strategies overlooked the significant potential of community-based food recovery organisations to contribute measurably to national mitigation targets while simultaneously addressing food insecurity affecting vulnerable populations.

This approach demonstrates how countries can achieve integrated solutions that advance multiple SDGs through single policy interventions. The initiative builds on Ecuador's existing Ecuador Carbon Zero Program (PECC), which establishes a regulatory framework to incentivise emissions reduction programs, providing the foundation for this innovative food recovery integration.

As described by Alicia Guevara, president of Banco de Alimentos Quito (Quito Food Bank): “Thanks to this project, the Quito Food Bank now has data that shows its environmental impact in a measurable and auditable way. This was extremely important. During our discussions with the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Ecological Transition, it enabled us to engage on the same technical level, answering and resolving questions about the data we presented. This is the first time that a civil society organisation specialising in food assistance has been recognized as a key player in the fight against climate change in my country, Ecuador. Ultimately, this made us view the food bank not only as a social project, but also as having an impact on climate change.”.

Leading organisations: Banco de Alimentos Quito (BAQ), The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN), Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE), Ministry of Agriculture (Ecuador) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Activities

Main activities included:

• Inter-ministerial coordination between environment and agriculture ministries
• Pilot application of FRAME (Food Recovery to Avoid Methane Emissions) methodology to quantify avoided methane emissions from food recovery, achieving significant advancement in digital maturity and data management capabilities.
• Development of MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) systems to track food bank contributions to climate targets.
• Legal framework development to formally recognize food banks as climate actors through working groups for NDC definition.
• Alignment of food recovery data for integration into national greenhouse gas inventories.
• Stakeholder engagement across civil society, private sector, and government agencies.
• Implementation of Microsoft Sustainability Manager platform for real-time methane mitigation tracking.
• Direct engagement with Ministry of Environment (MAATE) demonstrating measurable and auditable environmental impact data.
• Participation in climate change action forums and international partnerships (UNIDO, WWF).

Impact

Target outcomes: formal inclusion of food banks in national climate framework with measurable emission reduction targets and enhanced food security for vulnerable populations.

Advancing mitigation targets: Ecuador's NDC now includes quantified emission reductions from food recovery, directly contributing to the country's commitment under the COP26 Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030. Quito Food Bank contributes measurable methane mitigation through systematic food waste prevention and redistribution, with the FRAME methodology quantifying real-time methane emissions prevented, providing credible evidence for climate contributions.

Strengthening adaptation planning: Food banks enhance national adaptation capacity by building food system resilience, directly supporting Ecuador's adaptation objectives. The model increases access to nutritious foods for vulnerable populations, with BAQ distributing over 70% of its food in higher nutritional level categories (fruits and vegetables, grains, pulses and legumes, dairy, animal proteins, nuts and seeds, fats and water) during 2024.

Scaling climate-smart agriculture: Integration demonstrates how post-harvest interventions complement on-farm climate actions, creating comprehensive food system approaches to climate action that connect agricultural producers with food recovery systems.

Strengthening policy integration: The model establishes institutional mechanisms for coordinating climate and agriculture policies, enhancing Ecuador's capacity for integrated climate governance and demonstrating how community-based organisations can be formally recognised as climate actors in national planning.

Climate impact: During 2023, Quito Food Bank quantified avoidance of 175,58 metric tons of biogenic methane mitigated, 4338 metric tons of CO₂e reduced, recovering 4128 tons of food serving 109,000 people monthly.

Historic policy recognition: In 2024, Ecuador's Ministry of Environment evaluated and recognised Quito Food Bank as an initiative with measurable impact in climate change mitigation, becoming the first civil society organisation in the food assistance sector to be recognised as a key actor in climate change mitigation.

NDC Integration: Quito Food Bank was formally included in Ecuador's Second NDC (2026-2035), making it part of the country's official greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

Food security: Enhanced access to nutritious food for vulnerable populations, serving 87.260 people in 2024, with over 70% of distributed food corresponding to higher nutritional level categories (fruits and vegetables, grains, pulses and legumes, dairy, animal proteins, nuts and seeds, fats and water).

Technological advancement: UNIDO partnership resulted in full financing for technological conversion using natural refrigerants and increased refrigeration efficiency, addressing one of the main operational emission sources.

Policy development: Active participation in regulating Ecuador's 2022 Law for Preventing and Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Mitigating Hunger in Vulnerable Populations, working with the Ministry of Agriculture.

Enhanced donor confidence: Measurable environmental data generated increased trust among donors already working on climate issues, opening new funding opportunities.

Access to climate financing: Quito Food Bank, is among the first organizations eligible for national climate financing mechanisms.

Replicability: Ecuador's model now serves as template for other countries updating their NDCs.

Institutional strengthening: Established inter-ministerial coordination mechanisms and MRV capacity for food recovery tracking.

Innovation: First successful integration of community-based food organizations into national climate policy framework globally.

International recognition: Participation in high-profile climate events including TEDx Climate Change and consideration for Ecuador's Carbon Zero Program.