Elettra Tirino (Junior Researcher G.E.O. Environment)
Abstract
Over the years, the discussion over the agrifood systems has faced a dilemma: producing more now to address immediate needs while endangering future food security and nutrition or curb production to reduce emissions. Nevertheless, the last two COPs, COP27 and COP28, show that aligning agrifood systems transformation with climate actions is possible and necessary. With the signature of the COP28 Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food System and Climate Action, states committed themselves to undergo transformative measures to guarantee the food industry aligns within a 1.5° C pathway, is climate-resilient, and pursues food security goals. However, the success of the results achieved will strongly depend on whether and how governments will up their ambitious responses to climate change adversities.
1. Introduction
Over the years, the discussion around agrifood systems has faced a dilemma: the choice between producing more to address immediate needs while endangering future food security and nutrition, or curbing production to reduce emissions (FAO, Global Road Map). Providing healthy food for all, today and tomorrow, is crucial as well as aligning agrifood systems transformation with climate actions. The perceived trade-off between these two objectives has led to inaction and has fueled climate action skepticisms. However, a noteworthy shift occurred during COP27, held in Sharm-El-Sheik (Egypt) in 2022. For the first time in COP’s history food and agriculture were extensively incorporated in the most important global conversation on climate action, marking an important step forward in recognizing food and agriculture as both contributors to climate responsibility and solutions to climate challenges.
Building on what has been initiated during COP27, COP28, held in Dubai (UAE) from November 30 and December 12, 2023, was crucial to align global efforts and recognize the multifaceted nature of agricultural practices to effectively tackle climate change while ensuring food security. By signing the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food System and Climate Action, countries committed themselves to make efforts to minimize emissions to the greatest extent possible while still aligning with social and dietary objectives to mitigate global warming.
This analysis aims at explaining the two major results achieved during COP28 Food, Agriculture and Water Day, focusing also on UN Food and Agriculture’s Global Road Map. The latter provides the framework within which current and future initiatives regarding the transformation of food systems should take place.
2. COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food System and Climate Action
Reflecting the COP28 UAE’s Presidency’s commitment to inclusion, the COP28 Food, Agriculture, and Water Day, held on December 10th, involved a variety of actors beyond governments that work at the frontline of sustainable food system transformation. Non-government stakeholders, smallholders, traditional farmers and fishers and representatives of the private sector were present to showcase their commitment to food innovation throughout the employment of sustainable practice.
The main result of this thematic day was the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action signed by 153 countries on December 12, 2023. Heads of states and governments, on one hand, recognized that adverse climate impacts are increasingly threatening the resilience of agriculture and food systems as well as the ability of many, especially the most vulnerable, to produce and access food. On the other hand, they acknowledged the profound potential of agriculture and food systems to drive powerful and innovative responses to climate change and to unlock shared prosperity for all.
By signing this declaration, states affirmed the need to urgently adapt and transform “collaboratively and expeditiously” their agriculture and food systems to respond to the imperatives of climate change (COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food System and Climate Action). The Declaration is comprehensive of both social and strictly environmental objectives. Social objectives deal with scaling up adaptation and resilience activities through financial support and technical programs such as social protection systems and safety nets, school feeding, and public procurement plans. The idea behind is to reduce the vulnerability of all food producers to the impact of climate change through the maintenance of inclusive and decent work – with a special focus on specific needs of minority groups – while conserving, protecting, and restoring nature. These social objectives are inserted into the broader strictly environmental objectives of shifting from higher greenhouse gas-emitting practices to more sustainable production and consumption approaches, including the reduction of food loss and waste and the promotion of sustainable aquatic blue foods.
Important achievements were reached during COP28 Food, Agriculture, and Water Day also in the realm of finance. The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM4CLIMATE) announced an increase of USD 3.4 billion, positioning itself as the largest advocacy and coordination platform in the dual climate-action investments, since 2021 when UAE and the US launched the idea during COP26. Moreover, philanthropic funders announced USD 389 million to support food producers and consumers all around the world while COP28 presidency, together with a group of international organizations and government, launched a USD 200 million commitment to support the Technical Cooperation Collaborative (TCC) (COP’28 Food, Agriculture and Water Day Secures Major Commitments to Address Climate Impacts and Keep 1.5C within reach).
However, all the initiatives inaugurated during COP28 Food, Agriculture and Water Day are rooted in the framework laid out by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s Global Road Map, designed to harmonize the diverse initiative and transformation pathways undertaken by countries.
3. FAO’s Global Road Map
During COP27, FAO proposed itself as the facilitator of all the initiatives regarding the transformation of food systems by providing a road map to support countries to have access to climate investments, increase knowledge, and offer policy support and dialogue while guaranteeing that the food-industry can stay within a 1.5° C pathway, be climate-resilient, and pursue food security goals.
The cornerstone guiding FAO’s endeavors is the concept of a Just Transition which is delineated through two elements: improved efficiencies and global rebalancing. The principle of Just Transition, integral to the Paris Agreement, aims for a fair and inclusive decarbonization that leaves no one behind making the transformation of the agrifood systems its natural extension. As food demand rises due to demographic and income growth, enhancing productivity in low-yield settings, in particular by supporting smallholders globally, helps (re)balance inequalities and closing gaps between and within nations. In the meantime, technological transfers to small farmers can boost efficiency while reducing hunger and cutting carbon footprints.
FAO’s Road Map involves an extensive process which was just initiated at COP28 and will be spanned for three years, each step bearing distinct significance in the collective pursuit. Beginning with the presentation of the Global Road Map during COP28 Food, Agriculture and Water Day, it will continue during COP29 with the focus on intensifying and devolving into the intricate details at the regional level. Basically, the narrative will evolve from a broad global perspective to a nuanced examination (FAO, Global Road Map) while introducing a financial dimension. Indeed, currently representing a mere 4 percent of total climate financing, climate finance must be redirected to this essential sector. Ultimately, at COP30, FAO’s efforts will extend to the crucial realms of monitoring and accountability in order to ensure that the commitments will be translated into tangible and sustainable outcomes.
With the idea that a sectoral focus will encourage pragmatic views and link actions to economic decision-makers, FAO’s Road Map proposes a holistic, systemic and strategic portfolio composed of ten “domains of action”. Solutions from one domain interact with others while remaining sensitive to biodiversity, gender, and indigenous communities’ needs.
· Livestock: intensification of productivity via improved genetics and feeding practice, aiming at reducing resource usage, prioritizing animal health, and aligning with low-carbon production.
· Fisheries & Aquaculture: a variety of blue transformation actions to long-term sustainability and inclusive development.
· Crops: enhancement of efficiency, resilience and sustainability by optimizing resource use, adopting climate-smart and regenerative agriculture practices.
· Enabling healthy diets for all: since the recognition of food security and nutrition as intrinsic human rights, it encompasses a set of measures for dietary guideline improvements and measures to shield vulnerable populations.
· Forest and Wetlands: number of actions focused on the safeguard and regeneration of those ecosystems.
· Soil and Water: promotion of nature-based solutions while enhancing soil knowledge.
· Food and Loss Waste: adjustments in production and distribution as well as behavioral nudges to optimize food consumption and foster circular economy practices.
· Clear Energy: alignment with the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero Road Map 2023 to minimize the food-fuel trade-offs.
· Inclusive policies: protecting the rule of law, ensuring justice, education accessibility and social protection systems are pivotal for an inclusive agrifood sector.
· Data: creation of internationally recognized metrics are vital for transformative agriculture advancements and resilient systems.
4. There can be no Healthy Food Systems without Healthy Freshwater Ecosystems
During COP28, the critical ties between food and agriculture and climate have been stressed through another topic: water. Indeed, climate change is negatively affecting the global natural water cycle, resulting in flooding and droughts and reduced access to safe drinking water.
The key water-focused outcomes of COP28 Food, Agriculture and Water Day included the Water and Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Investment Strategy and the Fresh Water Challenge. The first one, by an increase of USD 100 million, seeks to enhance the coping capacity for the most vulnerable communities to build their climate-resilient water infrastructure. The second one is a country-led initiative that aims to support, integrate, and accelerate the restoration of 300.000 km of degraded rivers (representing 30 percent of the total) and 350 million hectares of degraded wetlands by 2030.
Healthy rivers, lakes, and wetlands are the best buffer and insurance against the worsening impact of climate change. Investing in their production and restoration will produce the most important returns: strengthening climate adaptation and reducing disaster risks as well as increasing water and food security while reversing the catastrophic decline in freshwater biodiversity.
5. Conclusion
Even in a world striving for limited global warming at 1.5°C, significant adaptations are imperative for our agrifood systems, as evidenced by recent global trends, particularly in low and middle-income countries. These regions face an above-average increase in challenges and are already falling behind in terms of agriculture productivity. Without additional interventions, their resilience capacity will continue to erode, leaving them ill-prepared to cope with future shocks.
Overall, the main results achieved during COP28 Food, Agriculture and Water Day demonstrated a notable progress in acknowledging the potential of agrifood systems in climate action and reduced the significant challenges posed by the persistent inconsistencies and differences in policy frameworks and categorizations all around the world. In this sense, the UN Food and Agriculture is playing an important role by editing the three-year Global Road Map. However, the success of the results achieved will strongly depend on whether and how governments are setting up their ambitious responses to climate change adversities.
Bibliography
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COP28 UAE, COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action, (2023) obtained from: https://www.cop28.com/en/food-and-agriculture, 1-A
COP28 UAE, COP’28 Food, Agriculture and Water Day Secures Major Commitments to Address Climate Impacts and Keep 1.5C within reach, 2023. Obtained from: https://www.cop28.com/en/news/2023/12/Food-Agriculture-and-Water-Day 1-A
FAO, Achieving SDG2 without Breaching the 1.5 threshold: a Global Roadmap. How Agrifood System Transformation through Accelerated Climate Actions will Help Achieving Food Security and Nutrition, Today and Tomorrow, 2023. Obtained from: https://www.fao.org/interactive/sdg2-roadmap/en/ 1-A
The World’s Fresh Water Challenge, 2023. Obtained from: https://www.freshwaterchallenge.org/ 1-A