COPASETIC? Food, Nutrition, and COP28

This blog was originally published on Medium

Now that the desert dust has settled and the planes have touched down, what to make of COP28? Is everything copasetic (Anglo slang for “going well”)?

Here are my conclusions:

The COP food systems door has been thrown wide open, and now it is up to us to make the most of it.

From a food systems perspective, the words “agriculture and food systems” are yoked together in the UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action. That is progress, acknowledging that while agriculture and food systems have big overlaps, they are different (food systems deliver more outcomes, go way beyond the farm gate to consumers, and focus on synergies and trade-offs therein). The UN Food Systems Summit is name-checked too, but perhaps the two most important statements are “We stress that any path to fully achieving the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement must include agriculture and food systems.” and “We affirm that agriculture and food systems must urgently adapt and transform in order to respond to the imperatives of climate change.” This opens the door for lower emission food systems and more resilient food systems, although there will be some instances when better diets don’t mean lower emissions (and vice versa), so managing trade-offs well is critical. There is also a commitment to “expediting” the integration of agriculture and food systems into climate action, according to “our own national circumstances.”

Nutrition was mentioned 4 times in the Declaration, as an outcome of adaptation and resilience activities and via actions such as social protection programmes and food procurement. The reverse connection between nutrition and climate via healthy diets was not highlighted. A step too far for some, I suspect. This is something to aim for in the next 2 COPs.

The final First Global Stocktake Statement from COP28 across all sectors mentions food 6 times and food systems once when it “Encourages the implementation of … resilient food systems.”

So, there is plenty of wiggle room here and plenty of work to do, but the food systems genie has been let out of the COP box, and I think it is going to be impossible to put it back.

The food Declaration is a very significant achievement, and the UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, H.E. Mariam Almheiri, together with the Head, Food Systems for the COP28 Presidency, Kristofer Hamel, and their teams deserve great credit for their strong and determined leadership, as do the hundreds of organizations who supported the process.

The negotiators need to be negotiated

I wonder how many events, panels, and pavilions the negotiators attended? There were nearly 100,000 registered participants and 4,000 states and organizations registered at COP28, but only a small minority of these are actual negotiators. We need to really engage with the negotiators in the lead-up to COPs, starting with the annual midyear “Subsidiary” meetings. We need to understand how negotiators think and bring food system and nutrition issues to where they are. Negotiators are the key. We need to talk to them and not each other.

Country pavilions are where the hard work is showcased

I really enjoyed my visits to the country pavilions, but I was surprised how few people from outside the country were present at them. The Ethiopian pavilion was my favourite — a great place to learn in depth about what the country is doing on climate adaptation and mitigation — way beyond the typical panel soundbites and a great way to meet senior officials from the country, grappling with the issues in very practical ways.

Get out of your comfort zone and learn

One of my most interesting panel sessions was organised by the Asian Development bank on desertification. What do I know about that you may ask? Exactly what I was thinking, but I found that the issues (diversify production, localise value chains, reduce use of industrial fertilisers and pesticides have a lot in common with GAIN’s priority of generating diverse and safe diets). I probably learned most in this session, and I only knew 2–3 people in a room of 60. Getting out of your comfort zone is highly recommended.

Integration must be intentional: the example of the Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition (I-CAN)

I-CAN is an initiative launched at COP27 by the Egyptian Presidency and taken forward by GAIN, FAO, WHO and SUN. We had a couple of new reports with lots of results to share and plenty of opportunities to do so. I have learned a lot from I-CAN in the past 12 months, primarily the need to be intentional about breaking down silos and looking for the win-win actions that advance both better diets and better environmental outcomes. They will not happen through wishful thinking. We have to identify the extent of the integration of climate and nutrition in policy, strategy, and spending at the national and agency levels and then zero in on the best opportunities to integrate them further. We need to support the member states and agencies that want greater integration so they can seize those opportunities. This will not happen by osmosis. Resources need to be targeted to this work, and match-making is required. This is one of the most practical ways to build in food actions to climate plans at the country level — a priority for Baku COP29 and Belem COP30.

The COP moveable feast

One of the things one wonders in your first few COPs is “do we really need all these people here?” whilst conveniently forgetting that you are one of those people. The sheer scale of COPs is incredible. I have no doubt the negotiations at COP can be done much more efficiently than they are now, with many fewer participants. But the big crowds do draw in a lot of media, and they, in turn, draw the world’s attention to the climate crisis. And if the COPs were not so inclusive, many people would lose trust in them. By way of comparison, I did not read too many complaints about air miles when over 3 million people attended the men’s Football World Cup in Qatar in 2022. Surely our planet is more important than 22 men running around in shorts kicking a football?

See you in Baku!