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FEnvironment and nature experts have expressed disappointment over its outcome. Brazil’s recently concluded Cop30 climate conference, After failing to make any mention of the impact of the final text Climate change on food systems,
Plans to address food systems emissions are key to decarbonisation, for which the sector is responsible one third of total emissionsWhich originates from sectors including livestock farming, waste disposal, food processing, as well as rice paddy fields, which produce large amounts of methane.
From a climate adaptation perspective, food systems are also considered important, given that an estimated 500 million people worldwide are smallholder farmers, whose livelihoods depend on are being put at greater risk every year Due to extreme weather.
It is estimated that more than two billion people depend on these smallholders – while studies show that they produce about one-third of the world’s food.
“It is extremely disappointing that [outcome] Food systems and agriculture were not mentioned explicitly,” says Haseeb Bakhtari, who was closely following the talks for consultancy Climate Focus. “We were hoping and advocating for explicit inclusion of all food systems… but that has not happened.”
Seb Osborne, who was doing the same for the non-profit Mercy for Animals, shares a similar view. “I think it was a disappointing result,” he says. “The fact that it is mentioned energy, deforestationAnd many other areas – but not food systems – are surprising.
A an adjournment Meanwhile, the report released during Cop30 found that disasters have caused agricultural losses of $3.26tn (£2.49bn) over the past 33 years, amounting to about 4 per cent of global agricultural GDP.
with agri-business giant With Brazil hosting this year’s climate summit, many expected Cop30 to produce stronger outcomes for agriculture and food than in previous years.
As to why this was not the case, Bakhtari believes it is largely due to the fact that food systems are very context-specific, with different countries having very different agricultural sectors.
“We could still achieve an outcome recognizing the need for food system change in countries, which accepts that change needs to be driven by local contexts,” he says.
Raj Patel, a research professor at the University of Texas, believes the result The fingerprints of industrial agriculture lobbyists are all over it. He says, “It’s not failure. It’s capture.” “Until we call it what it is, and until governments choose people over corporate interests, these negotiations will continue to betray the very communities they claim to serve.”
farmer with ruined cocoa crop
Location of Cop30 in Belém city at the edge of the amazon rainforestThis means you don’t have to look far to find evidence of food systems at risk from the climate crisis.
A short boat ride from the city center takes you to Kombu Island where Doña Nena farms cocoa beans on land owned by her family for over a century, and also produces artisan chocolate.
Speaking from among his cocoa groves, which lie among native forest trees on the edge of the rainforest, he told Independent The previously unseen extreme weather was significantly disrupting his harvest by disrupting harvest time and reducing the size of his crop.
“We’re seeing that we haven’t had as much rain as before – we should have already been in the rainy season – but they haven’t come,” he said. “By now we should have many more fruits, so we can start our harvest in December.
“But since last year, we are realizing that the crop is changing. Production is going down, and sometimes there are even deformed fruits.”
There are obvious questions as to what Dona Nena would have done more money was available Calling on authorities to address the climate crisis, particularly around improved water-access infrastructure like water pumps and local dam systems.
“We hope that at Cop30 they will focus on smallholders with better policies – and also work to provide us with better public services around sanitation, education and security,” he added. Independent Just before the final deal was agreed upon.
According to Florence Colnett, senior technical manager on climate at The Fairtrade Foundation, Dona Nena’s story is typical.
“Every day, we hear from small farmers and farm workers Already grappling with the harsh realities of climate change,” she says. ”A cocoa farmer in Côte d’Ivoire recently shared how irregular rainfall patterns caused yields in his co-operative to drop by more than 50% last year.
“Small food producers in developing countries grow more than a third of the world’s food and are on the front lines of climate adaptation. Yet, their voices are often missing from the global conversation.”
decline in climate adaptation
The main Cop30 negotiation area that Dona Nena will help with is climate adaptation, which is about supporting people financially and technically as climate impacts intensify.
Other important negotiating documents beyond Cop30 Mutirão Was Global Goals on Adaptation (GGA), which is a framework through which countries should measure climate adaptation under the paris agreementBased on several key indicators.
Food systems were mentioned here, highlighting areas including management of food produce, research and development, food supply and land degradation. However, according to Seb Osborne of Mercy for Animals, the result on the adaptation was inadequate.
“We saw no real discussion on the specifics of the indicators until quite late in the COP and then only in closed sessions,” he says. “And what we have on food systems is quite vague, and I think countries will struggle to monitor and report on these as they are expected to.”
For Bakhtari, the mere fact that food systems are mentioned is a “small victory”, even if this is not what the lawyers were pushing for. The big disappointment for them is the extent to which the aid plan has been negotiated with a target – to triple climate adaptation financing for poor countries by 2035 – and the low likelihood that it will reach farming communities.
“The financing target is vague and its baseline unclear – and this comes in the context of agriculture and food systems currently receiving only about 1 percent of climate finance,” he says. He further says – As Independent has previously reported – If there is any hope that it will reach the small farmers who need the money most, the systems through which the money is accessed need to be “completely transformed”.
Bakhtari’s comments are as follows a report The report, published ahead of Cop30, found that smallholder farmers with land holdings of 10 hectares or less would need $443 billion per year to adapt to climate impacts: a figure well below the $470 billion per year the UN estimates is currently spent on environmentally-destructive agricultural practices.
Smallholders are currently spending an estimated 20 to 40 percent of their annual income on adaptive measures – which can range from irrigation channels to climate-resistant seeds to new equipment – despite doing nothing to contribute to the climate crisis.
This article was produced as part of The Independent Rethinking global aid Project