As COP31 places zero waste at the centre of its climate action agenda, the newly announced Global Zero Waste Districts initiative offers an important direction for how cities should address their waste crisis: prevent waste at source, promote reuse and repair, compost organic waste, reduce dependence on plastics, and recognise the contributions of waste pickers. Importantly, WTE incineration is not recognised as an eligible intervention under the initiative and will not receive funding.
The 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations' flagship annual climate conference, is taking place in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9–20 November 2026. With zero waste identified as one of the priorities in COP31's Global Climate Action Agenda, the conference is placing greater emphasis on preventing waste generation, reducing emissions and advancing circular economy solutions.
COP31's ambition to halve the projected increase in global annual municipal solid waste generation by 2035 is a significant recognition that the global waste crisis cannot be addressed simply by expanding collection, treatment and disposal infrastructure. It requires action much further upstream — rethinking how products are designed, manufactured, packaged, consumed and discarded.
The exclusion of WTE incineration from the "Zero Waste District" initiative is a significant victory for communities, waste pickers/workers and zero-waste advocates who have long challenged the destruction of valuable materials through incineration, negative livelihood and health impacts and pushed for prevention-first, community-led alternatives. This is also an important step forward in shifting the global waste narrative away from burning waste and towards genuinely sustainable solutions.
The first cohort of 20 Zero Waste Districts in 11 countries was announced today under the Istanbul Zero Waste Action Platform, led by COP31 Climate High-Level Champion Samed Ağırbaş. The initiative is designed to demonstrate practical, measurable solutions at neighbourhood level, with districts implementing shared composting facilities, reuse and washing systems, and repair infrastructure.
Evidence from India further demonstrates why this distinction matters. The recent report The Climate Cost of Burning Waste: Evidence from Delhi's Waste-to-Energy Incinerators, published by the Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) and the National Alliance for Climate and Environmental Justice (NACEJ), found that electricity generated by Delhi's four operational WTE incinerators carries approximately 3.4 kg of fossil-origin CO₂ per kWh of net electricity exported. This is approximately 4.7 times the average emissions intensity of India's electricity grid.
The study also found that plastics constituted around 42% of the refuse-derived fuel burned by these facilities. These findings challenge the attempt to position waste incineration as climate action, particularly when the same conference is promoting prevention, reuse, resource recovery and community-led solutions as the foundations of zero waste.
Zero waste cannot be reduced to managing waste after it has been generated. It must begin by questioning why materials are becoming waste in the first place, preventing unnecessary consumption and keeping resources in circulation rather than destroying them. The Global Zero Waste Districts initiative provides an opportunity to demonstrate what meaningful climate action in the waste sector should look like. Its prevention-first principles must be reflected consistently across COP31's wider climate agenda, including its policies, partnerships and financing decisions.
"Zero waste is more than just managing the waste that is generated. In fact, waste management is the last ladder in this approach. This requires preventing waste at every opportunity — from extraction to use — and keeping materials in use for as long as possible." said Samed Ağırbaş — COP31 Climate High-Level Champion.
"Only a drastic reduction in waste generation will secure a liveable and affordable future. The world urgently needs to shift to a zero waste approach" said Inger Andersen — Executive Director, UNEP.
"COP31's ambition to halve projected waste growth by 2035 is a major victory for communities and the global zero-waste movement. We cannot claim to pursue zero waste while continuing to destroy valuable materials through incineration. The real climate solution lies in preventing waste, keeping materials in circulation and strengthening community-led zero-waste systems." said Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran, Senior Research Associate, Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA).
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