Celebrating methane reduction advancements in the waste sector guided by the Environmental Justice Principles
The Global Action Hub on Waste Methane and Environmental Justice is an international online space to collectively assess, address, and celebrate the advancements on this field of climate action and support the implementation of the Global Methane Pledgeand the COP 29 Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste (ROW Declaration) in alignment with the Environmental Justice Principles.
Launched in July 2024 at the Methane Action and Environmental Justice Summit in Tanzania, the GAH is an open space to support all those working to this agenda and share expertise, strategise, celebrate, and ultimately hold an accountability space for environmental justice in the intersection between waste and climate.
Currently facilitated by GAIA whose members are deeply engaged in promoting and implementing zero waste solutions as climate champions, the GAH is inspired by the great momentum and years of building the intersection between waste and climate, especially since the launch of the Global Methane Pledge at COP26 in 2021.
Since then, several promising political and financial interests in tackling methane emissions from the waste sector have surfaced, yet it is crucial that those interventions must align with environmental justice principles to ensure methane emissions reduction go hand-in-hand with social and economical benefits for all stakeholders and that no one is left behind.
JOIN THE GLOBAL ACTION HUB
Join the 7th quarterly meeting. Register here.
This discussion space is relevant especially for:
- Policy makers and government officials
- Non-government organizations
- Implementers, waste workers, and wastepickers
- Think tanks
- Philanthropists
GLOBAL ACTION HUB WEBINARS
1st Quarterly Meeting (12 Sep 2024)
In this inaugural call, we looked at the State of Play on Waste Methane Reduction and Environmental Justice, as well as some of the best practices from Chile, Ghana, and India. The space also served as a place to celebrate progress and express mutual support towards methane emissions and environmental justice.
Speakers: Harshad Barde (SWACH, India), Tamara Ortega (Fundacion Basura, Chile), Daniel Nkrumah (La Dade Kotopon Municipal Assembly, Ghana)
2nd Quarterly Meeting (12 Dec 2024)
With the recently concluded COP29, the meeting focused on the overall results from COP on waste and methane and a report back from the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations. Recognizing the impacts of Paris Agreement Article 6, we looked at the work that needs to be done to ensure that problematic projects are halted. Global efforts to close dumpsites and landfills and expectations for COP 30 were also on the agenda.
Speakers: Donovan Storey (Climate and Clean Air Coalition), Ana Rocha (GAIA), Jonathan Crok (Carbon Market Watch), Dr. Amani Maalouf (Oxford University), and Victor Argentino (Instituto Polis)
3rd Quarterly (12 Mar 2025)
This meeting focused on CSO’s input to waste methane reduction and EJ in the NDC3.0 and the criteria for climate finance for zero waste.
Speakers: Mariel Villela (GAIA), Yasna Tapia (Alianza Basura Cero Chile), Dorothy Otieno (Center for Environmental Justice and Development, Kenya), Eskedar Ergete (Eco-justice, Ethiopia), Bella Nathania (Indonesian Center for Environmental Law), Shahriar Hossain (Environment and Social Development Organization, Bangladesh), and Yobel Putra (GAIA)
4th Quarterly Meeting (June 11, 2025)
This session focused on the recently released report by the Climate Policy Initiative, Financial Analysis of Solid Waste Management Business Models: Case Studies in Indonesia and Brazil and a cost-benefit analysis of zero waste system in Durban. This was followed by an open discussion on the challenges and opportunities to financing and scaling organic waste management.
Speakers: Tiza Mafira (Climate Policy Initiative, Indonesia), Tammlyn Fleetwood (Durban University of Technology, South Africa), Kira Erwin (groundWork, South Africa), Paul Jones (LUMEC, South Africa), UV Jose IAS (Suchitwa Mission of Government of Kerala, India), Gerardo Canales (Reciclo Orgánicos /ImplementaSur, Chile), and Severino Limo, Jr. (International Alliance of Waste Pickers, Brazil).
Link to recording (English, Spanish subtitle)
5th Quarterly Meeting (October 16, 2025)
With COP 30 jut around the corner, this session delved into the state of the climate negotiations. It also looked into waste, conflict, and community resistance and new publications and resources from GAIA. There was also a live update from the 1st gathering of the cohort for the U.S. Methane Reduction and Environmental Justice Regrant Program which supports community-based organizations reducing methane through zero waste strategies, centering justice and leadership in the communities most affected by pollution and climate change.
Speakers: Dr. Bharat Bhushan Nagar (High-Level Climate Champions Team), Dr. Amiera Sawas (CAN Just Transition Working Group), Mariel Vilella (GAIA), Severino Lima, Jr. (International Alliance of Wastepickers), Lucia Fernandez Gabard (WIEGO), Cecilia Allen (GAIA), and Denaya Shorter (GAIA US/Canada).
Link to recording (English, Spanish subtitle)
6th Quarterly Meeting (January 27, 2026)
In this Global Action Hub on Waste Methane and Environmental Justice, titled Financing Zero Waste: Driving Climate Justice, with special focus on Asia, we looked at Lessons from 2025: What Worked, What Didn’t, and Why, Financing and Scaling Community-Led Zero Waste Solutions, and Envisioning Zero Waste in Climate and Finance Agendas for 2026 and Beyond
Speakers: Yobel Putra (GAIA), T.K. Sujith (Cherthala Municipality, Kerala, India), Rap Villavicencio (Mother Earth Foundation, Philippines), Edel Garingan (GAIA Asia Pacific), and Mariel Vilella (GAIA). Moderated by Sumana Narayanan (GAIA Asia Pacific)
Link to recording (English, Spanish subtitle, Portuguese subtitle, French subtitle)
RESOURCES
- A Key to Rapid Methane Reductions: Keeping Organic Waste From Landfills (GAIA 2024)
- Case Study: Avoiding Food Waste in Outdoor Markets, Fundación Basura’s Experience in the Metropolitan Region, Chile
- Case Study: Nourishing Communities: Gita Pertiwi’s Justice-Centered Food Sharing Model in Surakarta, Indonesia (GAIA 2024)
- Climate Finance: From Harmful to Impactful (GAIA 2024)
- Cutting Methane Emissions through Zero Food Waste System (GAIA 2024)
- Environmental Justice Principles for Fast Action on Waste and Methane (GAIA 2024)
- GAIA at COP29
- GAIA’s NDC Checklist: Guidance on integrating waste and methane reduction into the NDCs 3.0 in alignment with Environmental Justice Principles (GAIA 2024)
- Zero Waste Model: Dar Es Salaam Case Study (GAIA, Nipe Fagio 2024)
Practical roadmaps and guidelines on implementing zero waste strategies:
- Back to earth: composting for various contexts (GAIA, 2022)
- Enabling sustainable cities through Zero Waste: A guide for decision- and policy-makers (GAIA Asia- Pacific, 2019)
- Funding Zero Waste in Your Municipality: 3 Steps to Success (GAIA, 2021
- My Zero Waste Event. 12 Actions to start a zero waste process (Zero Waste Europe, Zero Waste France, 2018)
- Reducing food waste at the local level: guidance for municipalities to reduce food waste within local food systems (ZWE and Slow Food, 2021)
- The Zero Waste Masterplan: A Guide to Building Just and Resilient Zero Waste Cities (GAIA US and Canada, 2020)
- Companion Guide for Organizers (GAIA, 2020)
- The Zero Waste Masterplan:Turning the vision of the circular economy into a reality for Europe (Zero Waste Europe, 2020)
- Zero Waste City Manual. A Toolkit to Establish City and Community Zero Waste Systems (Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG), with GAIA and Break Free from Plastic, 2020
Relevant external reference documents and processes from close and aligned allies:
- Environmental Justice Leadership Forum on Climate Change
- Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing, developed in Jemez in 1996
- Principles of Environmental Justice, developed in Washington DC in 1991
- Various EJ Declarations here