By Food Tank*
BAKU, Azerbaijan | 25 November 2024 (IDN)–The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, (which concluded November 23) focused on securing financial investment to move global climate progress forward. Rich industrialized nations were asked to recognize and repair the harm they’ve caused, and everyone knew beforehand that negotiations might become contentious.
Still, it was disappointing to watch in real time as these countries, who are responsible for the climate crisis and have the most resources available to address it, stonewalled attempts by smaller and developing nations—especially small island developing states-/to take meaningful action.
When COP29 officially came to a close, negotiations had become strained: The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and Least Developing Countries (LDCs) staged a principled walkout, and the final deal called for wealthier nations to increase their climate pledges from US$100 billion per year to US$300 billion per year by 2035.
This is a far cry from the US$1.3 trillion that global experts and developing countries have said is necessary to limit warming. And some larger countries that are still classified as developing, like China and India, are not necessarily obligated by the funding deal.
Negotiators were unable to come to an agreement on several priorities identified in last year’s COP28 Global Stocktake, including a pledge to transition away from fossil fuels, pushing it to next year’s COP30 in Brazil.
There’s no separate climate system for rich nations.
The global climate crisis affects each and every one of us, no matter where we live. If we fail to listen to the moral call to act—if we fail to change business as usual in response to a rapidly warming planet—we’re jeopardizing not only our own future but the futures of every subsequent generation on this planet.
Small nations, who bear a disproportionate impact of industrialized climate change, know this well. Indigenous groups know this well. Young people know this well.
During their temporary walkout, the Honourable Minister Cedric Schuster of Samoa, the Chair of AOSIS, made a powerful statement: “We need to be shown the regard which our dire circumstances necessitate,” he wrote. “What is happening here is highlighting what a very different boat our vulnerable countries are in, compared to the developed countries. After this COP29 ends, we cannot just sail off into the sunset It will be difficult to turn the Titanic around”.
But we did see some positive developments during the two-week conference. A Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, which was first agreed upon at COP27, has been officially launched with more than US$700 million in commitments to help lower-income countries respond to natural disasters made worse by the climate crisis.
The Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers, started at COP29 alongside the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, is expected to improve coordination among agricultural coalitions, including women and young folks, and encourage investment.
The COP29 Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste represents a step toward countries meaningfully tackling the massive—and often forgotten—climate implications of food waste.
And civil society coalitions continued to step up to help bridge the funding gap, too. AIM for Climate, launched by the United States and United Arab Emirates in 2021, is sending billions of dollars in the right direction—US$29.2 billion, in fact, from a network of more than 800 partners in 56 countries, going toward investing in climate-smart ag and food systems innovation.
A coalition led by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and other partners is devoting significant resources toward supporting more than 100 million small-scale farmers around the globe, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) pledged a goal to mobilize US$3.5 billion toward sustainable water and food security in Central Asia. These are just a few examples of steps in the right direction.
It’s not enough, though. There’s no question these investments will literally save lives, and at the same time, we cannot rely on individual organizations and philanthropists to protect the planet alone. The climate crisis is an all-encompassing challenge, and we’ll need massive, principled global action to address it. Simply put at COP29, we did not see that coordination take place to the extent it’s needed.
Going forward, it’s non-negotiable that food and agriculture systems continue to play an even more significant role in solutions to the climate crisis. Over the past few years, it has been encouraging to see more attention paid to food on major international stages like COP29 and the G20 Summit, another influential political leaders’ conference that took place recently in Brazil.
As more countries announce their updated climate action plans, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), by early next year, it’s up to each nation to integrate food systems into climate solutions and scale up support for food-related initiatives and interventions.
Food systems are inextricably linked with climate systems, and we will only solve the climate crisis when we get serious about food security, regenerative agriculture, and locally rooted production systems that nourish communities.
The next UN Climate Change Conference, the milestone COP30, is scheduled for next year in Belém, a city in Brazil’s Amazon states. But we can’t afford to let another year go by while we wait for global leaders to do the right thing.
In an open letter during COP29, several international experts—including high-level United Nations leaders like former Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon—called for rethinking the way climate negotiations like COP take place, to prioritize more frequent meetings and stronger accountability instead of once-a-year talks.
Indeed, addressing the climate crisis will take constant work, not isolated, one-time steps. And it’s true that meaningful solutions will require significant financial resources to help us reverse course and nourish people and the planet.
And we’ll pay an even higher price for inaction. And by putting food systems front-and-center, we can empower communities to consider how their production, procurement, and consumption patterns factor into global climate.
“I don’t think that an investment on climate is an expense. We should not look at it as a cost,” Stefanos Fotiou, Director of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, said during COP29. “We should look at it as an investment for the future.”
*Food Tank is a research and advocacy organization devoted to telling stories of hope in food and agriculture systems around the globe. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Photo: Malawi’s largest independent smallholder farmers association is working to help producers improve crop yields and adapt to the climate crisis while promoting gender equity.
