Recap: Food and Agriculture Take Centre Stage at COP28

On December 1, leaders from 134 countries signed the landmark Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action and immediately prioritized food on the COP agenda for the duration of the conference. This was the first declaration signed at the Leaders' level regarding food systems and climate, underlining the importance and impact of climate change on the agriculture sector. Commitments were made, including upscaling the availability of, and access to, financial support for food systems transformation, and timelines were set for 2025, along with a review at COP29 in 2024.

In the session on Resilience of Food Systems and Climate Change, the question was raised on why food security is a part of national security when it had never been considered that way before. Climate change can lead to a food insecurity crisis, and that would lead to conflict. Likewise, conflict can lead to a food insecurity crisis and that is exacerbated by climate change. A tripartite solution would have to include anticipatory systems, community-led resilience programs, and climate risk insurance programs. Governments cannot do this alone, private sectors have to collaborate. The Global North also needs to financially contribute to the Global South, because the cost of not helping would be greater, not to mention leading to significant forced displacement. The problem needs to be looked at holistically, not with siloed solutions; it makes no sense that Africa should be impacted if there is a war in Ukraine. Stabilizing the countries and having peace in place is key, because if there is war, there cannot be enough stability to grow food.

The launch of the African Women Clean Cooking Support Programme (AWCCSP), lead by Her Excellency Dr. Samia Suluhu, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, was incredibly inspiring. Clean cooking is about gender equality and economic justice and rights; there is a disproportionate impact faced by women without access to clean cooking solutions. Cooking with fire takes too much time to gather firewood for girls and women and does not allow for girls to go to school or women to seek their own income. It leads to respiratory and pulmonary diseases; 4 million women (more than malaria, TB, and HIV combined) die per year from internal pollution due to cooking at home. A child is three times more likely to die from lack of access to clean cooking than from malaria, just from their mother cooking at home. In essence, lack of access to clean cooking is gender-based violence and clean cooking solutions are about empowering women. The aims of AWCCSP are to promote the adoption of clean cooking technologies in Africa, empower African women with training and support, promoting regional cooperation and knowledge exchange, thereby encouraging African women in leadership. The estimated funding required is $2 billion per year.

According to the discussion on Climate Smart Agriculture for Food Security, the last time the world was this hot was 25,000 years ago, but the world did not practice agriculture until 10,000 years ago, which means this is the hottest the world has ever been since we began growing our own food. There cannot be food security without food system transformations that mainstream climate start agriculture. Devoting 1% of agriculture GDP for innovation would be a good start. Farmers should not only be producers of healthy food, but also providers of ecosystem services that the world is demanding. This way, farmers would end up having multiple revenue streams and everyone would be able to have access to nutritious foods every day. This would become a productive social investment rather than a subsidy, because more would come out than would be put in. The African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation joined forces to use their complementary expertise, resources and networks to develop and implement the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), which galvanizes climate-resilient actions through a triple-win approach addressing the impacts of Covid-19, climate change, and the economy.

During the session on AI Solutions for Climate Change, we learned that "using AI helps to mitigate 5-10% of greenhouse gas emissions." Unlocking AI's full potential would require collaboration across all sectors but would lead to rural development, smart water resource management, and climate responsive agriculture; AI should be accessible to all. The session spoke of data, science and technology, explaining how we can use big data and AI to predict what is coming next, as well as how we can use big data to harness the future. An example provided was how planned breeding and seeds can be more resilient in the future of agriculture, and how cosmic rays can be used for discovering and assessing ground water. The panel discussed hot to increase access to technology and data for farmers in rural area, so they may be able to monitor and predict when soil can be irrigated.

As declared during the session on Agrifood Systems Transformation, agrifood solutions are climate solutions. Over 34% of crop and livestock has been lost in the world's least developed countries (LDC) due to droughts, at a cost of $37 billion. There is a need for food stockholding systems for LDCs and a need to invest in early warning systems, training, and agricultural technologies. The speakers on the panel were certain we will go beyond 1.5° before 2030 and farmers on small island developing states (SIDS) and landlocked developing countries (LLDC) are also on the frontlines of climate change. On seeking new funding flows, it was estimated that it would take $350-400 billion per year to transform agrifood systems; however, every dollar spent saves $10 in humanitarian assistance.

Water should also be at the heart of climate actions; green water and blue water innovations, food and agriculture are becoming more of a priority on the climate agenda, not just energy and carbon emissions. The focus on energy has already had a major impact, it is now time to focus on food and water.

When speaking of solutions for agrifood systems transformation, it was determined that small-scale farmers are not able to afford the technologies that are being proposed. Low cost alternatives must be found, since their business models are different. Everyone understands farmers need support, but only 3% of climate financing is available to farmers. The challenge is that so many intermediaries speak on behalf of the farmers, but farmers are not given the opportunity to speak for themselves. Agrifood systems transformation cannot be discussed without bringing farmers into the conversation.

Finally, the session for Gender Inequality for Climate Action in Agrifood Systems emphasized that the relationship between climate change and food systems cannot be ignored because climate change directly impacts farming and farming systems in agriculture is one of our most intimate relationships with nature. Farming and agriculture are directly impacted by climate change and it is essential to figure out how we can feed the world when the world is heating up. To capture women's needs, it is essential to remember that technology is not gender neutral; it holds significant bias from the developers, from the people who are designing these processes. Farm mechanization is important but the kind of farm mechanization that is being introduced, practiced or promoted is not women-friendly.

Women generally find that they have better opportunities in the informal economy, that this is a place where they can make their living, where they can have an effective livelihood, whereas the formal economy is a gendered market they largely entered at a disadvantage. This needs to be noted when promoting technologies through these particular pathways, so that women are not alienated from market opportunities through household dynamics as well as market dynamics.