The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has unveiled an ambitious plan aimed at transforming global agricultural food systems from emission sources to carbon sinks by 2050, capable of annually sequestering 1.5 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions.
This announcement comes as the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai is nearing its conclusion.
According to the United Nations News Center, FAO has identified ten priority areas, including livestock, soil, water, crops, food systems, and fisheries, that can help the world move closer to achieving the second Sustainable Development Goal of “Zero Hunger.”
This plan and roadmap seek to bring about a transformation in agricultural food systems, encompassing how food is grown, produced, transported, and ultimately, how it is disposed of.
The plan aims to help eradicate hunger globally without pushing the planet beyond the 1.5-degree Celsius limit set by the Paris Agreement.
David Laborde, Director of the Agricultural Economics Division at FAO, stated that the roadmap was designed to avoid climate disaster and create ways to work on climate issues that can benefit everyone now and in the future.
At the same time, Maximo Torero, Chief Economist of FAO, emphasized that the goal of this roadmap is to transform agricultural food systems through accelerated climate actions to help achieve food security and nutrition for all, today and tomorrow.
This comes as around 738 million people worldwide suffer from chronic malnutrition.
In a report related to the roadmap, FAO stated that climate finance flowing into agricultural food systems is significantly low and continues to decline compared to global climate finance flows, at a time when this type of funding is critically needed.
The work being accomplished at COP28 is considered a “good starting point,” and this roadmap can provide guidance for the implementation of the United Arab Emirates’ declaration on sustainable agriculture, flexible food systems, and climate action, which was launched at the opening of the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
