COP28 summit: The money food badly needs for climate fight is rolling in

Agnieszka de Sousa

Supercharging crop seeds to better withstand drought. Breeding cows that burp out less methane. And tracking cattle to prevent deforestation. They’re part of the arsenal the world needs for food’s climate fight, and they’re getting a big cash boost.

More than $3 billion in climate finance has been pledged for food and agriculture since the start of the COP28 summit in Dubai, according to the organisers. On top of that, governments, philanthropies and private money are boosting funding for tackling methane in agriculture, ending deforestation and climate-smart innovation, as the summit finally puts food higher on the agenda.

Ensuring the food system limits and better copes with climate change is key to hitting green goals, especially as populations grow. From farm to fork, food makes up about a third of greenhouse gas emissions, while also being increasingly threatened by rising temperatures, erratic weather and changing rain patterns. More money will help speed up technologies and strategies needed for the battle.

“This has been an unprecedented COP for food and climate, the COP when food came of age as a central means of responding to the climate emergency,” said Edward Davey, partnerships director at the Food and Land Use Coalition. “Now the onus is on all of us to hold ourselves accountable for the commitments made.”

COP’s official tally for food project funding does not include some other related announcements over the past couple of weeks, such as the $10 billion Africa and Middle East SAFE Initiative, a public-private project officially launched on December 3 to advance climate-smart agriculture. The pledges still need to be followed with real money and action. Financing has for years lagged the amount pouring into many other sectors and the gap for what agri-food needs is “huge”, said Barbara Buchner, global managing director at the Climate Policy Initiative.

The challenge is massive. The last three decades saw $3.8 trillion of crops and livestock production lost due to disasters including floods and droughts, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organiz­ation says. But beyond such headline-grabbing events, there lurks a slow and dangerous worsening of condit­ions for millions of farmers around the globe.

In Chhattisgarh (in India), farmers Lal Singh Rathore and Narayan Singh have seen soil gradually harden and get more depleted, while pests and diseases have multiplied. Argentinian honey maker Ana Laura Sayago’s bees have struggled to get enough nectar as dryness stops flowers blooming and hives melt in heat. And in Uganda, Elizabeth Nsimadala’s 

avocado seedlings were destroyed by prolonged drought.