Political declarations at COP28 hold promise for food, but countries must deliver

The first days of COP28 saw the launch of the COP28 food systems declaration. In the first week, it had been endorsed by more than 130 global leaders, with that number now exceeding 150. The endorsing countries have agreed to integrate agriculture and food systems into their national climate plans. As someone who has been in the climate-negotiation space for over 10 years, I can say that this has been a long time coming. The wait and the advocacy for action on food systems has not been an easy road. An endorsement from 150 countries, when historically food has been on the sidelines, feels monumental, to say the least. And yet there is so much more to do. The food systems declaration at COP28 (also called the Emirates Declaration), is giving food systems their moment in the sun, but it missed the mark on some important opportunities. For one, the declaration would ring truer if it committed to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions from one signiﬁcant source: animal agriculture. Second, the declaration’s blanket inclusion and promotion of aquatic or blue foods, without delving into the diversity in terms of both production and emissions, raises concerns that one-size-ﬁts-all policies may have detrimental impacts for people, ecosystems, and emissions. Thankfully, the declaration on climate and health, also launched in the first week of COP28, takes a step forward, recognizing that “shifts to sustainable healthy diets” have notable beneﬁts for curbing climate change. This is a welcome and much-needed solution, given that the hidden costs of our food system, including environmental, health, and social costs, amount to $12.7-trillion, or around 10 per cent of the global GDP. As food systems contribute more than one-third of global emissions, transformational change across food systems is crucial to meeting global climate goals. The majority of these food system emissions come from animal agriculture (including potent methane from cattle and emissions resulting from deforestation and other aspects of animal-feed production), even though animal-based foods provide only 18 per cent of our calories and 37 per cent of our protein globally. The disproportionate impact of animal agriculture extends beyond emissions, accounting for 30 per cent of global freshwater use and driving biodiversity loss. Amelia Linn is the director of Global Policy at Mercy For Animals, leading the organization’s international policy program. Handout photograph Earlier this year, the IPCC, the UN’s authoritative body for climate science, reiterated the vital importance of climate action on food, conﬁrming that “even if fossil fuel emissions were eliminated immediately, food system emissions alone would jeopardize the achievement of the 1.5ºC target and threaten the 2ºC target.” While COP28’s focus on food systems is a welcome step forward, it is important that these political declarations result in adequately addressing food under the formal negotiations taking place at COP. Take the Global Stocktake (GST) for example. The decision on the GST is expected to be one of the central outcomes of the formal negotiations at COP28. Any decision adopted here will assess collective progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement to date and guide future climate action. Comprehensive and ambitious action on food systems must be included within this outcome. Given the current state of the climate crisis, the IPCC has warned that “every bit of warming matters,” and indeed, we cannot aﬀord to overlook the critical emissions savings available through shifts to more plant-based diets. Reducing food system emissions requires both changes in how we produce food, such as transitions to more sustainable farming practices, and changes in how we consume food, such as shifts toward more plant-based diets and avoiding food waste. As food demand and supply are interlinked, a focus only on increasing production eﬃciency could result in an overall increase in emissions. In regions where heavy consumption of animal-based foods is prevalent, we need countries to adopt policies to support shifts to healthy plant-rich diets. These could include ﬁnancial incentives, such as redirecting subsidies to align with sustainability and public health goals. Another solution is to implement public procurement policies at national and subnational levels to increase the accessibility of healthy plant-rich foods. Additionally, education and awareness programs, along with science-backed dietary guidelines, would encourage the adoption of sustainable and healthy diets. We are now in the critical final days of COP28, and there is a tremendous opportunity to drive climate action on food systems. We hope the spotlight on food through these political declarations will translate into addressing food systems in the formal UN climate negotiations, which are scheduled to conclude in the next few days. Ultimately, countries must take action on food in alignment with climate science, equity, and justice. If the international community fails to address food systems in the formal outcome of the COP28 negotiations, Dubai will not be known as the “food COP” but instead will be seen as the COP that allowed food systems to be marginalized within climate action. The time for climate action on food has been a long time coming—let’s make sure we get it right. Amelia Linn is the director of Global Policy at Mercy For Animals, leading the organization’s international policy program. The Hill Times