Agrifood Systems at COP30: Progress and Gaps

Abstract

The agrifood system is one of the main factors contributing to climate change and one of its most vulnerable victims. Yet it continues to receive only a marginal share of global climate finance. COP30 in Belém marked an important milestone, highlighting agriculture, food security, and land restoration. New initiatives, including the TERRA platform for agroecology and agroforestry, the RAIZ program for restoring degraded agricultural land, and the Belém Declaration on Fertilizers, underscore the sector's centrality to achieve global climate mitigation and adaptation goals. However, despite unprecedented visibility, persistent funding gaps and limited integration of agro-industrial sectors into negotiations reveal a disconnect between political ambition and tangible support for those who produce the world's food.

Authors:

Martina Cioni (Junior researcher GEO Ambiente)

Linda Lorenzon (Senior researcher GEO Ambiente)

Introduction - Food system and climate change

Supporting sustainable and resilient agrifood systems is essential to achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement and ensure global food security (FAO, 2025). Agrifood systems contribute up to one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, with the livestock sector alone responsible for approximately 14.5% of total emissions, primarily through methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2) and ammonia (NH3) (Grossi, Goglio, Vitali, Williams, 2018; Papakonstantinau et al., 2024). At the same time, climate change adversely affects agriculture and food systems, with cascading impacts on food security, nutrition, poverty, and livelihoods (UN FoodSystem, 2025). These effects are particularly acute in low- and middle-income countries where food systems are fragile and highly climate-dependent.

Without urgent action, climate change could push an additional 132 million people into extreme poverty by 2030. Moreover, the cost of inaction is also substantial: malnutrition already costs the global economy an estimated US$3.5 trillion per year in lost productivity and healthcare expenditure (Yakubu, Karim, 2025).

Despite the severe problems posed by this sector, it has been systematically overlooked as a source of greenhouse gases by international policies due to a lack of public awareness. Currently, only 4% of global climate finance currently goes to agriculture and food systems (Yakubu, Karim, 2025). Science-based agrifood solutions should play a pivotal role in reducing emissions, enhancing carbon sequestration, restoring ecosystems, and strengthening resilience, but it is possible only with strong finance support (FAO, 2025).

1. COP30

During COP30, held in Belém, Brazil, the thematic sessions on 19th and 20th November placed agrifood systems at the centre of the global climate agenda, granting them unprecedented visibility. For the first time, the FAO and numerous governments have strongly emphasized that agriculture, livestock farming, fishing, aquaculture and land use are not simply “productive sectors”. They constitute a strategic lever for climate mitigation and adaptation, as well as for food security and nutrition for over a billion people. The discussion highlighted how sustainable practices, such as restoring degraded land to resilient crops, and sustainable aquaculture to low-impact animal husbandry – can contribute significantly to reducing emissions, increasing carbon sequestration, protecting ecosystems and ensuring food stability (FAO, 2025).

Earlier in the COP30 programme, on 10th November, new financial commitments were announced to support small farmers in transitioning towards more sustainable agrifood systems. Brazil and the UAE introduced the world’s first open-source AI Large Language Model (LLM) for agriculture. That farmer-centered AI forecasting tool aims to empower over 100 million farmers by 2028 with real-time insights, strengthening climate-smart decision-making, risk preparedness, and inclusive innovation across agricultural systems worldwide. In addition, more than US$2.8 billion in new funding was announced for farmer adaptation and resilience, to be invested in technologies and tools that help farmers adapt to climate impacts and strengthen local food systems. A particular focus has been placed on smallholder farmers in vulnerable regions who are disproportionately affected by worsening extreme weather events (COP30, 2025).

1.1. TERRA

The initiative Family Farming at the Center of Climate Solutions (TERRA) is a flagship component of the COP30 Action Agenda. It places family farmers, Indigenous Peoples, and traditional and local communities as key actors in transforming food systems from conventional farming practices to agroecological and agroforestry techniques (COP30, 2025; FAO, 2025). These groups produce about 80 % of the world’s food by value and are among the most vulnerable to climate change but receive less than 1 % of global climate finance. TERRA promotes sustainable farming practices that do not worsen the environment, but coexist with it, by integrating trees and livestock with crops, implementing natural pest control, using home-made compost, rotating crops to improve soil nutrition, and managing water sources (FAO, 2025).

The transformation supported by TERRA includes strengthening cooperatives and producer associations, creating regional training centres, establishing multi-donor trust funds to mobilise public and private capital, expanding access to native seeds, biofertilizers, biopesticides, and appropriate machinery, and promoting sustainable value chains and public procurement (FAO, 2025). Research indicates that agroecology and agroforestry, when implemented on a large scale, can reduce emissions by trapping carbon in the soil, improve soil health, water retention and biodiversity, and make farmers less vulnerable to climate shocks.

1.2. Belém Declaration on Fertilisers

On 19th November, the UK and Brazil, together with a group of first-mover organisations, announced the Belém Declaration on Fertilisers (COP30, 2025). Although fertilisers are fundamental for global food security, their production and use currently cause significant harm to nature and climate, with associated economic costs. Fertiliser production and use account for around 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, global imbalances in fertiliser use result in major economic losses: overuse in some regions leads to ecosystem damage and crop losses estimated at up to $3.4 trillion annually, while underuse in others – in particularly in Africa – to causes around $4 billion in lost soil nutrients, contributing to lower yields and hindering food security and economic development (GOV.UK, 2025).

The initiative positions sustainable fertiliser production and optimised nutrient management as key strategies for achieving climate goals, protecting nature, and ensuring food security. It aims to mobilise research, innovation, investment, and international coordination to support countries in scaling low-carbon fertiliser production and improving the efficiency of nutrient use. The declaration was highlighted at COP30 as a major step forward in the global effort to accelerate fertiliser decarbonization (COP30, 2025).

2. RAIZ

Another very appealing initiative is called RAIZ - Resilient Agriculture Investment for net-Zero land degradation - a global effort offering a “quadruple win” for climate, biodiversity, food security, and combating desertification where FAO will support implementation through the FAST Partnership. Aligned with the shared goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the UN Convention on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), RAIZ focuses on restoring degraded agricultural lands to achieve multiple co-benefits, including reducing emissions, strengthening food security, preventing deforestation and conserving biodiversity (FAO, 2025).

The RAIZ path is grounded in four pillars (FAO, 2025):

• Map and update data on degraded landscapes and value-chains
• Estimate costs and identify sources of financing for land restoration
• Design optimal co-investment mechanisms to convene governments and investors
• Foster knowledge sharing and create opportunities for peer-to-peer exchange

This initiative attempts to resolve yet another problem that is still extremely urgent today, although it is too often overlooked. According to the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, between 638 and 720 million people faced hunger in 2024, and around 2.3 billion people, about 28% of the global population, experienced moderate to severe food insecurity. Restoring and sustainably managing farmland has emerged as a shared priority in response to the complex challenges threatening food production and poverty eradication (World Farmers’ organisation, 2025).

Unfortunately, about 1 billion hectares of agricultural land are degraded with Latin America and Asia being the most affected with around a quarter of farmland highly or moderately degraded. Despite the scale of the challenge, capital is not flowing at the level required to restore degraded farmlands. (Action contre la faim, 2025). Addressing this gap demands collective action to scale up financing models capable of addressing the problem, they called that a global “mutirão”, using a Portuguese word originating in the Indigenous Tupi-Guarani language that refers to people working together towards a common aim with a community spirit. This aligns with the COP30 Presidency’s call to accelerate the implementation of climate solutions in line with the Paris Agreement (COP30, 2025).

3 The biggest challenge is finance

With 3.8 billion people living off agriculture, there is an urgent need to support the transition to sustainable practices and livelihoods through climate policies. Solutions, for example, exist in agroecology that enables the production of nutritious and healthy food while respecting ecosystems. It promotes crop diversity, reduces waste, protects water resources, and strengthens community resilience. However, this transition must be supported by public funding, training, social protection, and support for small producers, particularly women.

Responding to the priorities of the COP30 Action Agenda under the thematic axis “Transforming Agriculture and Food Systems” several events and conferences examined how farmer-led efforts can be scaled up through inclusive collaboration, strong agricultural organizations, and, above all, supportive policies and climate finance. One of the key points is the realization of tangible benefits for rural economies, creating long-term value for both people and the planet (World Farmers’ organisation, 2025).

The agrifood transition must be farmer-centered, based on accessible financing and fair remuneration for the value they create, from which we all benefit. The transformation will only be sustainable if farmers can continue to make profitable business decisions. It has been repeatedly pointed out that farmers are ready to lead the way in climate change adaptation and mitigation, if it is provided they receive adequate support from the outset. This is the big problem: the funds seem to be there on paper, but then the initiatives struggle to become concrete projects because the money does not go where it is really needed!

Paul Zakariya, from the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union, delivered a compelling intervention at the World Climate Summit (WCS, 2025) illustrating how drought, rising production costs, and unpredictable seasons are influencing farmers' decisions. He emphasized that real transformation is only possible when farmer-led action, scientific solutions, and financing come together, making sustainable food production possible even under increasing climate pressure.

Conclusion - Agri-food systems still neglected

COP30 highlighted agriculture like never before, yet progress for farmers still lags behind. On the agri-food front, the international conference ended without any real recognition of the role of agro-industrial systems in the global climate crisis. Nevertheless the paradox is cruel: the agro-industrial food system supposedly designed to feed the world, is responsible for more than one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. It harms health, the environment, biodiversity and unfortunately, due to unfair and inadequate policies, fails to fulfil the right to healthy and equitable food for all (CarbonBrief, 2025)

Intensive agriculture, which is heavily dependent on fossil fuels and raw materials, transformed into commodities, was not addressed in the negotiations, despite being largely responsible for the climate crisis and tropical deforestation. Food appears in the final text only as a marginal indicator of “climate-resilient food production.” In addition, commitments on deforestation and the structural causes of the exploitation of global natural resources have also been weakened (Ferrario, 2025)

A “forestry” COP held in the country that is home to the world's largest rainforest, without any commitment on forests, is rather absurd, and pressure from large agro-industrial lobbies has certainly had an influence. Time is running out every year, but for now we hope that the next COP, to be held in Turkey in 2026, will bring more tangible and immediate results.

Riproduzione riservata ®

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