Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, the Minister of Climate Change and Environment for the United Arab Emirates, has confirmed substantial progress in the “Agricultural Innovation Mission for Climate” initiative since its inception at the COP27 conference. Investment commitments to the initiative have significantly increased, soaring from $8 billion to $17 billion. Additionally, the number of innovative leaps within the initiative has more than doubled, growing from 30 to 78.
In a discussion panel at the UAE pavilion with Tom Vilsack, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Almheiri highlighted the remarkable growth in the number of partners involved in the initiative. The partner count has more than doubled, rising from 275 to over 600, including governmental partners from more than 55 countries across all six continents, contributing over $12 billion. The initiative also collaborates with non-governmental entities, including academic institutions, non-profits, think tanks, and others.
Almheiri emphasized the critical role of collaboration across sectors and countries in driving the success of the “Agricultural Innovation Mission for Climate.” She pointed out the major award given to AgroSpace for their project leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning. This project, “Revolutionizing Remote Sensing for Food Security,” which will unleash the capabilities of AI, received significant resources for its development under the award.
The minister also mentioned the doubling of innovative leaps within the initiative, now totaling 78, thanks to the support and funding from partners. Each innovation aims to support at least one of four key focus areas: smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries, emerging technologies, ecological agriculture research, and reducing methane emissions.
Additionally, Almheiri highlighted securing $228 million to expand innovative fermentation technologies producing plant proteins and securing $460 million to restore productivity to 255,000 hectares of degraded agricultural land and pastures in Brazil as some of the initiative’s recent achievements.
In her closing remarks, Almheiri stressed the urgency and importance of accelerating efforts in food system innovation, given its priority in global sustainability. She noted that while significant progress has been made, it is only the first step, and a rapid increase in viable solutions is crucial to address the intersecting crises of global hunger and climate change. She emphasized the importance of coordination and collaboration as key tools to achieve more and faster.
COP28 is a significant event for global climate action. It represents a critical moment for assessing progress in tackling the climate crisis and determining necessary course corrections. Since the Paris Agreement at COP21, the focus of subsequent conferences has been on implementing its key goals: limiting global average temperature rise to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit the rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. COP28 is expected to be a turning point, moving beyond agreements on what climate actions will be taken, to showing how these actions will be delivered.
The conference is conducting the first global stocktake, which began at COP26 in Glasgow, to measure progress towards the Paris Agreement goals on mitigation, adaptation, and climate finance, and to adapt existing plans. The outcomes of COP28 could be the most consequential since the 2015 Paris conference, emphasizing the urgent need for stronger climate action. This includes a 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2010 levels, achieving global net-zero emissions by 2050, transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, and increasing investments in climate adaptation and resilience.
Significant announcements at COP28 include the UAE President announcing a $30 billion fund for global climate solutions, aiming to attract $250 billion of investment by the end of the decade. Additionally, over 130 countries have signed a declaration to include emissions from agriculture and farming into their national climate change plans, and 118 countries have agreed to targets to triple renewable power generation capacity to 11,000 GW and double energy efficiency this decade. Fifty oil and gas companies pledged to reach near zero-methane emissions by 2030, with plans to meet those targets by 2025, and a fund was announced for methane abatement projects in emerging markets and developing economies
