2023-12-11 17:58:59
The global food system is one of the sectors most weakened by the effects of climate change, while being one of the culprits. Faced with this observation, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) unveiled on Sunday a roadmap to reconcile the eradication of hunger in the world and climate objectives. A new document even though the subject is often left aside at the negotiating table.
This was one of the objectives of the 2015 Paris climate agreement: to end world hunger while managing to limit global warming to +1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era. . However, at each world climate conference – the COP – the same criticism systematically comes up from NGOs and scientists: agriculture and food do not occupy a sufficiently important place at the discussion table.
Sunday, December 10, however, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) took advantage of COP28 to make an impact. She thus revealed a roadmap of actions to be undertaken by States to fight the two battles head-on – food security and climate change. A document, assures the institution, which must represent a “turning point”, when “there is no more time to lose”.
The global food system is in fact one of the sectors most weakened by the effects of climate change, particularly due to its consequences on agriculture. For several years, malnutrition indicators have been increasing: more than 9% of the world’s population suffers from chronic hunger and a third lives in a state of moderate or severe food insecurity, according to FAO. “But food production is also one of the causes of global warming since it represents around a third of greenhouse gas emissions of human origin,” notes Marie Cosquer, advocacy analyst of food systems and climate crises for the NGO Action Against Hunger. “For a long time, certain States or certain institutions presented the two subjects as antagonistic battles, affirming that to feed the entire planet, we had to agree to produce more. But today, the observation is clear: it is our current food systems which no longer work as world hunger worsens.”
An observation shared by Oxfam. “This FAO document is an important step forward because it allows us to deconstruct this false opposition between the two subjects,” adds Quentin Ghesquière, responsible for agriculture, food and climate issues for the NGO. “Today, numerous studies show that the problem behind food insecurity is above all access and distribution of food,” he insists.
National action plans in 2030
In its roadmap, the FAO presents a series of actions to be undertaken to respond to these two challenges at the same time. It calls on each State to establish national action plans in two years, for COP30, in ten major areas (livestock breeding, fishing, waste, etc.). Among the measures put forward, the FAO suggests, for example, strengthening ” public subsidies to allow all populations access to healthy diets”, “to reduce consumption in rich countries” or even to “develop agroecology tools”.
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If “the measures to be put in place are still vague and not very concrete”, deplores Marie Cosquer, the FAO is mainly putting forward numerical objectives: the number of people suffering from chronic hunger must have decreased by 150 million in 2025 – around 735 million people. were in this situation in 2022 according to the UN – and reach zero in 2030. In 2050, the entire world population must also be able to eat healthily.
At the same time, the FAO sets the objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agri-food systems by 25% by 2030 and of achieving carbon neutrality in 2035, so that agriculture becomes a sink of net carbon in 2050.
“Ambitious objectives” – welcomes Quentin Ghesquière – which “lay the foundations for interesting and fundamental debates on how to achieve them”. The text in fact constitutes the first chapter of three parts, which must be published in 2024 and 2025. “This is what we are impatiently waiting for: the way in which we can concretely achieve these objectives, by tackling financing issues and regional applications.”
The question of financing indeed promises to be central. According to a report published in October 2022 by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a coalition of private foundations, only 3% of public climate funding goes to agriculture and food systems. Even more striking, the majority of developed countries – 62% – do not present any measures related to food systems in their “nationally determined contributions” (NDC), the national climate commitments for 2030. As for developing countries, only 4% of their quantified financial needs are for food systems transformation and resilience.
Increase funding
“If it is certainly insufficient for the moment, the text appears as a reminder that we must act quickly,” continues Quentin Ghesquière, while the subject is struggling to emerge as a major axis of climate negotiations. Proof of this is that on Monday, December 11, when the leaders present at the COP entered the final sprint for the adoption of a final agreement, the question of agriculture and food almost disappeared.
However, COP28 had started well. The day following its opening, 134 states – including China, Brazil, the United States and the twenty-seven members of the European Union – rallied behind a proposal from the United Arab Emirates, the host country, and committed to including agriculture and food in their national climate plans by 2025. “All paths to achieving the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement must include agriculture and food systems food”, stated the text.
“It’s positive,” reacts Marie Cosquer, of Action Against Hunger, who is particularly pleased to see the text affirm the “right to food” as a framework for all action on food systems. “But this remains insufficient because all the commitments made on the sidelines of official negotiations are not binding, and often struggle to materialize.”
Another criticism leveled at the text: “The language remains vague, there are no concrete actions or quantifiable objectives,” continues the analyst. “And it makes no mention of phasing out fossil fuels.” However, according to an assessment carried out by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, food represents at least 15% of global demand for fossil fuels.
“There will be no concrete progress at this COP”
Marie Cosquer especially regrets having seen the subject quickly disappear from official negotiations. “There will be no concrete progress on the subject of food at the end of this COP28,” she laments. In question, blockages, from the first discussions on agriculture and food, on the method to adopt to establish a framework for reflection. “Logistical and formal concerns which hide all the tensions at stake in these negotiations and which deprived us of discussion on the substance of the subject,” she regrets.
The analyst would also have liked to see the axes of agriculture and food mentioned in the final text on the global assessment, every word of which is fiercely debated in the final sprint of COP28. “It is an emergency but unfortunately, it does not seem to be accompanied by any political will. We know the solutions. We must apply the principles of agroecology and increase public funding to support producers.”
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