Food Insecurity: Did COP28 do enough?
The 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement formally declared the importance of “recognizing the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger, and the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems to the adverse impacts of climate change.” (1)
Although food insecurity is worsening day by day with the ever-rising regional conflicts and global poverty, many have argued that food security and agriculture have been sidelined in climate change discussions in recent arenas (2)
The 28th Conferences of the Parties (COP28) that was held from November 30th to December 12th, 2023 in Dubai has continued this trend: Marie Cosquer, a food systems and climate crisis expert stated that “There won’t be any concrete progress regarding food and agriculture at COP28.” (3)
The aim of COP28 is to bring governments from around the world to a formal meeting to assess their efforts in limiting climate change.
During this year’s conferences, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) took the initiative to publish a roadmap for governmental bodies to implement in order to combat food insecurity and global warming – perhaps implying that they felt COP28 would not deal sufficiently with the issue by itself.
The roadmap outlines various actions countries can take to address the interconnected challenges of global hunger and environmental sustainability. Through the national “Country Action Plans”, initiatives of clean energy, crop production, and waste management have the potential to be implemented and accomplished by 2030 (4).
Alongside, FAO has established specific targets to measure progress: By 2025, the aim is to reduce the number of people experiencing chronic hunger worldwide to 150 million, compared to the estimated 735 million in 2022, with the ultimate goal of eradicating chronic hunger completely by 2030. The FAO has also shown dedication to reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated by agrifood systems, aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035.
Ultimately, these targets and adjectives set in place by the FAO give hope for a more sustainable and equitable future, where access to nutritious and healthy diets is available, and food insecurity is at the center of the worldwide climate change agenda.
You can access the full FAO Roadmap here: https://www.fao.org/interactive/sdg2-roadmap/en/