This Conference of the Parties (COP) aims to measure global action taken since the Paris Agreement, by taking stock of how countries have so far acted to meet the target of 1.5°C. Speaking at the opening ceremony, COP28 President Dr Sultan Al Jaber stressed: 

“We have to come through. We must unite. We must act. And we must deliver in Dubai.”

In South Africa, like much of the world, our food system is starting to do more damage to the natural environment than ensuring our food security. The way we currently produce food threatens both the environment and human health. We need to ensure a resilient and sustainable food system, a healthy environment and access for all to nutritious food.

Read more here: Agri-food Systems: Facts and Futures

The Global Stocktake (GST) shows that most countries are failing to make progress towards the Paris Agreement’s goals. 

With food systems accounting for over a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, global animal welfare organisation Four Paws advocates that science-based reduction targets on production and consumption levels are key to mitigating emissions. 

Such targets can also mean a move to better farming systems such as agroforestry or silvopastoralism, which will help farms adapt and be more resilient to climate change.

Read more here: COP28 Marks Key Point for Climate Actions – FOUR PAWS International – Animal Welfare Organisation

COP28 has recognised the dual role of global food systems as both a culprit of climate change and its victim. This is why, on the second day of COP28, a leaders’ event brought together the global food community to make new commitments, anchored by the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action.

More than 130 countries signed the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action. 

What this means is that signatories committed to strengthening efforts to integrate agriculture and food systems into national climate plans, and revisit policies and public support related to agriculture and food systems.

In the negotiating room, on the other hand, food seemed more of a side dish. 

On 5 December, negotiations on the four-year Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work on Implementation on Agriculture and Food Security (SSJW) concluded with no agreements of substance. 

Negotiations on how to implement commitments made in Egypt at COP27 will only resume in June 2024, 18 months after the SSJW was established.

Despite its promise of being a “course correction”, a new draft of the GST as of 8 December failed to even mention food systems’ transformation, despite being in both the mitigation and adaptation sections of earlier drafts. 

More than 100 organisations (including Four Paws in South Africa) have expressed significant concern through an Open Letter to the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and urged for the inclusion of food systems in the final decision text. 

If current trends continue, emissions from food systems are projected to rise significantly in coming decades, contributing further to these effects and jeopardising the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has acknowledged that “even if fossil fuel emissions were eliminated immediately, food system emissions alone would jeopardise the achievement of the 1.5ºC target and threaten the 2ºC target”.

Read more in Daily Maverick: COP28 news hub

Addressing the food-climate nexus is existential and essential for meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and achieving food security, climate adaptation and climate mitigation. 

It should explicitly recognise that because food systems are cross-cutting, their transformation, if done properly, can bring significant co-benefits for human rights, gender equality, health, livelihoods, poverty eradication, food and nutrition security, ecosystems, biodiversity, animal welfare and nature.

The GST outcome should be the critical catalyst for global climate action and respond to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change. 

For many countries, this means addressing all aspects of the food system, from production through consumption, as well as the Global North’s proliferation of factory farming.

To achieve all the Sustainable Development Goals, agrifood systems must be transformed to be more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable to effectively contribute to food availability, accessibility and affordability. 

The COP28 presidency has called on governments to ensure food systems and agriculture are central to climate action. It is now up to them to serve up real change.

“Let’s please get this job done,” said Dr Sultan Al Jaber, opening a plenary session as the summit entered its toughest phase of negotiations. 

It is an important reminder of the promises made in the last 27 COPs and the urgency to conclude as much as possible at this year’s COP. This cannot be another COP wasted. DM

Celiwe Shivambu, the Four Paws in South Africa Campaign Officer on Climate Change and Pandemics, attended COP28 as an observer for Four Paws International.