COP29 and Food Systems: India’s Moment to Lead the Protein Transition
Asia Research & Engagement (ARE)
Creating change through investor-backed engagement.
By Rituj Sahu
The outcomes of COP29 offered mixed signals for food systems—a key lever in addressing the climate crisis. On one hand, the Declaration on Methane from Organic Waste and the continued spotlight on climate-health links show the growing recognition of food’s role in global emissions. Yet, the lack of substantive commitments and the absence of bold action on adaptation highlight the urgent need for leadership—particularly from countries like India.
For India, where food systems sit at the intersection of climate, nutrition, and economic opportunity, COP29 is both a call to action and an opportunity to lead.
India’s Twin Challenge: Rising Demand, Rising Climate Risks
As India’s population surges to 1.4 billion, the food system faces a dual crisis:
1.??? Rapidly rising protein demand amid persistent undernutrition—protein constitutes only 6-8% of caloric intake, far below the recommended 30%. A 2017 survey revealed that 73% of Indians are protein deficient, with an estimated 90.6 million expected to be at risk of hunger by 2030.
2.????? Escalating environmental pressures—livestock and rice production contribute over 50% of agriculture’s GHG emissions, driving climate vulnerability. ARE projects that India cannot decarbonise its protein sector without ending supply chain deforestation by 2030 and halting growth in industrial animal production. To meet current and future protein needs sustainably, India must also increase alternative or traditional plant protein volume steadily towards 2060.
Left unchecked, this growth risks locking India into a resource-intensive, emissions extensive food pathway. Yet, this moment also presents a transformative opportunity for our country: maintaining and growing our share of sustainable proteins (traditional or ‘smart’ plant-based and other alternative proteins), rebalancing the share of animal proteins from industrial farming and fisheries to better address our climate and nature goals, improve health outcomes, and build nutritional resilience.
India's commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and its updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) emphasise restoring degraded ecosystems and promoting community-driven conservation efforts. However, Indian food companies lag significantly, scoring just 3% on climate change efforts and disclosures and a mere 2% on deforestation and biodiversity, compared to their better-performing Asian counterparts at 23% and 9%, respectively. This underscores critical gaps in addressing emissions and the nature-related impacts of animal protein production. Ensuring food systems align with these priorities—through reduced emissions, improved land use, and sustainable strategies for achieving protein security—will be key to achieving India’s broader environmental targets, including ecosystem restoration and enhanced forest cover.
What COP29 Outcomes Mean for India
Methane Reduction and Food Systems Reform
The Methane Declaration underlines the global urgency to cut methane emissions—much of which come from livestock. With 14% of India’s GHG emissions linked to agriculture—over half from livestock—India cannot rely on incremental change. The sector must address emissions from enteric fermentation, feed production, animal and food waste, though only the latter is the focus of this Declaration. While the Declaration requires food waste targets as part of revised NDCs in 2030, there is the overarching need to integrate all food system emissions in revised NDCs,as led in principle at COP29 by Brazil, UAE and the UK.
As ARE shows in their Charting Asia’s Protein Transition research (2023); scaling plant-based and alternative proteins, while also mitigating priority sources of emissions associated with animal agriculture, offers a clear pathway to reduce food system emissions to science-based targets, while fostering innovation and growth in the sustainable food sector.
Climate-Health Synergies and Nutrition
COP29 reaffirmed the climate-health connection, but nutrition remained a secondary theme. For India—where malnutrition coexists with rising diet-related diseases—investing in and setting targets for sustainable proteins can tackle multiple crises: improving nutrition, reducing animal and related antibiotic use, environmental and food safety risks, building healthier communities. Platforms like the Alliance for Champions, launched at COP 28, which drive collaboration to advance sustainable and equitable food systems, provide an important opportunity to align efforts toward these goals.
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Mitigation and Adaptation Gaps and India’s Private Sector
While COP29 stalled on adaptation, and India refused to endorse the COP 28 UAE Declaration, Indian businesses cannot afford to wait. They must mitigate and adapt. Extreme weather, water scarcity, and supply chain disruptions are already impacting food production and profits. Recent regulatory moves like SEBI’s new ESG committee are promising, but companies must go beyond compliance and consider immediate impacts and a longer horizon. On the investor side, Indian investors are taking early steps to integrate ESG principles into their frameworks, with major asset managers like SBI Mutual Fund, and HDFC Asset Management Company championing some responsible investment policies. However, challenges such as the lack of localised ESG data, underperformance of ESG funds against traditional indices, lack of focus on food systems and economic dependency of India on carbon-intensive industries remain barriers to broadening and scaling integrated ESG.
While COP29 was dubbed the ‘Finance COP’, we saw negligible finance directed towards transforming food systems. This means companies must directly step up and optimise their own investment. Misallocated capital, and weak ESG performance can be costly and limit progress, while global investors demand higher sustainability standards and measurable commitments. By building resilient supply chains, improving traceability, diversifying and scaling sustainable proteins, Indian businesses can turn mitigation and adaptation into opportunities—securing sustainability linked capital, strengthening food systems, and positioning themselves as leaders in food sustainability. The time to act is now.
Why India Must Lead the Protein Transition
By prioritising a just and sustainable protein transition, Indian businesses can deliver impactful solutions, along with its many farmers, while meeting global investor expectations.
Global investors managing over USD 3 trillion—including Aviva Investors, BNP Paribas Asset Management, Columbia Threadneedle, DNB Asset Management, Fidelity International, and USS Investment Management—are already driving Asian companies to act through expectations of the Asia Protein Transition Platform. For Indian businesses, this presents a clear opportunity to lead by encouraging:
The Road Ahead: From COP29 to COP30
India’s food system transformation isn’t just about mitigating risks—it’s about unlocking massive opportunities:
More imminently, India—and all States—must review their NDCs by February 2025 (or at least by COP30) to integrate food system emissions, including emissions from food waste and agricultural supply chains.
As the baton passes to COP30 in Brazil, we will start to see in early 2025, whether countries and companies go beyond declarations to integrate food emissions in revised GHG Commitments, set concrete demand and supply side targets for food systems and drive real change. This is not just about India; it’s about empowering Indian companies, policymakers, and the broader ecosystem to drive leadership in the global protein transition.
Indian businesses and policymakers can then collectively drive systemic change for a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient food future.
The world is moving. The question is: ?Will Indian policy and companies seize this moment to lead?