World leaders at the United Nations climate conference, COP 28, signed a declaration on Friday to adopt policies and come up with finance to transform their food systems for a climate under immense strain.
The 134 signatories commit their countries “to expedite the integration of agriculture and food systems into our climate action and, simultaneously, to mainstream climate action across our policy agendas and actions related to agriculture and food systems” by 2025. More countries are expected to sign on by the summit’s end on Dec. 12.
The agreement marked a strong start to COP 28 in Dubai, where food and land use have taken center stage for the first time since the annual conference began in 1995. The COP 28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action is the first resolution at any COP to draw links between climate change and the food we eat.
“There is no path to achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and keeping 1.5C within reach, that does not urgently address the interactions between food systems, agriculture, and climate,” said Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, UAE’s minister of Climate Change and Environment and COP 28 food systems lead, as the declaration was announced at the World Climate Action Summit.
The 134 countries that signed the declaration are home to 5.7 billion people and almost 500 million farmers producing some 70% of all food produced worldwide, the UAE said in a statement. The United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, and China signed the accord. India, a major global producer of agricultural commodities and the world’s most populous nation, so far has not.
Also on Friday, the UAE, along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, announced a $200 million joint commitment to focus on agricultural research, scaling agricultural innovations, and funding technical assistance to implement the declaration.
Separately, the UAE announced a new “technical cooperation collaborative” to deliver on the declaration’s objectives. The collaborative’s partners, which have pledged $200 million total, include Italy, the U.S., U.K., World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, CGIAR, and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, among others.
Overall reaction to the declaration from food systems and climate advocates has been positive. Signatory governments have committed to integrate agriculture and food systems into their national adaptation plans, or strategies to adapt to the impacts of climate change; nationally determined contributions, or efforts to reduce emissions in line with the 2015 Paris climate agreement; and national biodiversity strategies and action plans over the next two years.
Still, many advocates said the declaration is merely a starting point. Among their criticisms: It’s not legally binding and does not mention phasing out fossil fuels from food systems.
“It’s encouraging to see that food systems are finally taking their place at the heart of climate negotiations and at the highest levels of government,” said Lim Li Ching, co-chair of IPES-Food — the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems — and senior researcher for Third World Network, in a statement on Friday.
“But while this is an essential first step, the language remains very vague — and specific actions and measurable targets are conspicuously missing — including shifting to healthy sustainable diets, phasing out fossil fuels, and reducing overconsumption of industrially produced meat.”
Elizabeth Nsimadala, president of the Eastern African Farmers Federation, said the declaration recognizes that the world’s 440 million small-scale family farmers are “key to delivering” the vision of food systems transformation.
“But if we are to play our part we need a real say in decisions on food and climate and more direct access to climate finance: we receive just 0.3% of international climate finance despite producing a third of the world’s food,” she added in a statement. “If governments work with us — and invest in us — we will create resilient and sustainable food systems which will feed the world for generations to come.”
Agrifood systems — including production, transport, storage, consumption, and disposal of food — emit at least one-third of all global greenhouse gasses and account for at least 15% of fossil fuels burned annually. The biggest culprit is industrialized farming, particularly livestock and fertilizers.
Meanwhile, the climate crisis is posing challenges for food security worldwide as droughts, floods, wildfires, and heat waves destroy agricultural land and push up the price of food commodities.
Alongside the leaders’ declaration, a coalition of at least 150 farmers and other frontline food systems groups — including businesses, civil society groups, and philanthropies — have signed “a non-state actors’ call to action” that highlights food and agriculture as solutions, and not just drivers, of the global climate crisis. Those who endorse the initiative commit to sharing their own “statements of action” on food systems transformation.
Philanthropic signatories to the call to action include the Rockefeller Foundation, Bezos Earth Fund, IKEA Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, ClimateWorks Foundation, and the Global Alliance for the Future of Food.
Tania Karas is a Senior Editor at Devex, where she edits coverage on global development and humanitarian aid in the Americas. Tania also spent three years as a foreign correspondent in Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon, covering the Syrian refugee crisis and European politics. She started her career as a staff reporter for the New York Law Journal.
