Past U.N. climate summits neglected food. That needs to change at COP27.
By Kabir Agarwal, an independent journalist who writes about food systems, climate change, and political economy.
November 9, 2022, 4:34 PM
The world’s food systems are among the biggest contributors to climate change—and one of its biggest casualties. Yet at past United Nations climate summits, negotiations have largely overlooked food. That needs to change at this year’s conference, known as COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Simply put, there is no way of tackling the climate crisis without fundamentally overhauling the world’s food systems. A 2021 analysis by Our World in Data showed that even if fossil fuel emissions magically disappeared, emissions from just the food sector would take the world beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, the aspirational target set in the 2015 Paris agreement.
That alone should be enough to spur action at COP27. But rising food insecurity has made the problem impossible to ignore. Egypt, which holds the COP27 presidency, is among the countries suffering the worst consequences of the global food crisis. Egypt has said its representatives will bring food systems into sharper focus at this summit. NGOs and other institutions have also been more active in raising awareness around the issue. Already, on the summit’s second day, 14 of the world’s largest food firms launched a plan to end deforestation in some of their major supply chains by 2025.
Given this push, food systems will feature more prominently in Sharm el-Sheikh than they have at any other U.N. climate summit. But in order to translate awareness around food systems into tangible action down the line, ministers, negotiators, and pressure groups must build off of this momentum and use all the tools they have at COP27 to push for food system transformation.
See related:
- BEYOND CARBON: Food systems, Climate and Greenwashing at COP27 (Media Workshop)
- Who’s Driving Climate Change? New Data Catalogs 72,000 Polluters and Counting – The New York Times
- Africa Confronts Food, Fertilizer and Climate Crises
- International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems
- Africa Confronts Food, Fertilizer and Climate Crises
- Jeffrey Sachs’ speech at the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit (full speech)
- “The Truth about the Green Revolution,” contribution to GTI Forum “Technology and the Future,” Great Transition Initiative (February 2022).
- The “Green Revolution:” Its Essence, Achievements & Aftermath
- “Just take the case of agriculture…”
- Why The World Is Running Out Of Soil
- “No Soil. No Growing Seasons. Just Add Water and Technology:” The Recent Evolution & Tragic Trajectory of the World Food System
- “The Truth about the Green Revolution,” contribution to GTI Forum “Technology and the Future,” Great Transition Initiative (February 2022).
- BBC World Service – The Climate Question, Can we feed the world without using chemical fertilisers?
- Billionaire Hydroponics, Expanding World Hunger & The Tragic Future Trajectory of Global Food System
- Ignorance, Arrogance, Overshoot & Collapse: The Destructive Power of Enduing Myths In Collapsing Civilizations
and - Overcoming the Multiple Legacies of European Colonialism: Can The West Survive Its Most Cherished Historical Myths?
- Misplaced Metaphors in the Anthropocene: Beware of the Devastating Power of Cultural Clichés & Misconstrued Metaphors on a Small Planet
- The Vulnerability of the Global Food System and the Strategies Needed for a Sustainable “Recovery”
- The Malthus Insight and the Global Limits of “Green Revolution” Food Production
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