Producing the world’s food causes about one-third of planet-heating emissions, even as climate change makes the job even harder, plaguing farmers with more frequent floods and droughts.

 

Despite all this, and the need to nourish the planet’s expanding population, food has barely made it onto the diplomatic table at the annual United Nations climate summits - until now, after the Covid pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war disrupted global supplies.

 

This year, at the COP28 talks in Dubai, a high-level declaration backed by 134 countries has placed food, how we grow it, and its relationship to climate change firmly on the international radar.

 

The nations that endorsed the declaration on Friday, representing more than 5.7 billion people, agreed to incorporate food and farming into their national climate action plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to more extreme weather.

 

“Countries must put food systems and agriculture at the heart of their climate ambitions,” Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, climate change and environment minister for the United Arab Emirates, told a COP28 launch event.

 

The declaration represents a “turning point” as countries look to address food system emissions and support farmers in dealing with the impacts of climate change, she added.

 

But critics pointed out that it does not explicitly mention fossil fuels - the main driver of greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Growing risk of hunger

Developing nations are particularly vulnerable to the harm rising temperatures could do to food supplies and food security.

 

About 80 per cent of the global population at greatest risk from climate-driven crop failures and hunger live in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, the World Bank says.

 

Edward Davey, partnerships director for the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), said very few countries have incorporated food and land use into their national climate plans so far.

 

Davey - who worked on the COP28 food systems declaration - described it as a “quantum leap”, because so many countries have now committed to do so in the next round of plans due by COP30 in Brazil in 2025.

 

A particular focus of efforts to make food systems more climate-resilient are small-scale farmers, who produce about one-third of the world’s food and are struggling disproportionately with climate shifts.

 

“The critical role which small-scale family farmers play is recognised in the declaration - which is a good start,” said Esther Penunia, secretary general of the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development, a network of organisations representing 13 million family farmers.

 

“But there are no guarantees - it’s up to governments to translate the declaration into action in their national climate plans and on the ground,” she added.

 

The declaration aims to boost measures to support vulnerable producers, communities and agricultural workers, such as early warning systems, social safety nets, school feeding programmes, nature conservation and better water management.

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