Sustainable Food Can Drive Sustainable Development

Food systems account for roughly 20-40 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions and 80 per cent of biodiversity loss. The industry is also a major economic generator -?worth around US$8 trillion , or 10 per cent of GDP, with a?large portion of young people ?in developing countries relying on it for income and livelihoods.

Addressing food systems systemically can therefore deliver outsized impact on decarbonisation and resilience - as well as the interlinked challenges of biofood diversity loss, desertification and broader sustainable development.?

The good news? We know what can deliver this. For example,?according to Exponential Roadmap?with increased ambition and?using nature-based solutions, we could reduce or remove?as much as?98 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent from the atmosphere by?2030 (that’s around three times the?global CO2 emission ?from energy in 2019) as well as regenerate systems of nature which underpin?the global food system and livelihoods.??

The UN’s first?Food Systems Summit ?in September presents an opportunity to spur the sector’s transformation in line with net zero emissions in the 2040s, healthier diets, an end to biodiversity loss, and building climate resilience. With a focus on solutions, the summit will bring together nutritionists, farmers, indigenous peoples, governments, the private sector, youth and others to set new commitments and initiatives that can accelerate all 17 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.?

The work started at a?pre-summit ?in Rome last week. The event was dubbed the People’s Summit because of its unprecedented level of engagement, with dialogues in 145 countries involving tens of thousands of people, alongside national-level dialogues and consultations. It also saw the formation of clusters to promote the best game-changing solutions to the systemic problems facing food systems. Watch talks?here , including from both High Level Climate Action Champions, Nigel Topping and Gonzalo Mu?oz.?

For countries, the task ahead of September’s summit is to commit to ending hunger for the 811 million people who are simultaneously most at risk from Covid-19, the climate crisis and hunger,?Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame ?said.?

Incorporating plans to improve diets and minimise food loss and waste into national climate plans could boost a country’s emissions reductions and adaptation to climate change by up to a quarter, according to a?report ?by WWF, the UN Environment Programme, EAT and Climate Focus in September 2020. The combined opportunity from addressing these issues equated to taking 2.7 billion cars off the road.

The Race to Transform Food

The High-Level Climate Champions team is working with businesses, investors and local governments to make half the world’s food systems regenerative by 2030, through both the UN-backed Race to Zero and Race to Resilience. How? By following the?climate action pathways ?set out by the Marrakech Partnership:

• Get public and private finance behind the transformation. This can be driven by coalitions like the?Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero , and requires a repurposing of food and agriculture subsidies and better links between government institutions dealing with agriculture, environment, health and finance.?
• Bring farmers and producers into the debate on the policies needed. Three-quarters of all food is produced by small farmers, who are underrepresented in international discussions yet also most at risk from climate change. The?Climakers , a Race to Resilience partner that includes farmer organisations from the Carribean, Africa and Europe, is giving farmers a platform in political processes on climate change and agriculture. The UK?National Farmers Union ?is setting a clear pathway to net-negative agriculture as early as 2030, while?Agriculture for 1.5 ?is offering farmers a tech platform to set and deliver decarbonization pathways.??
• Innovative practices and technologies such as alternative protein technologies and fintech that rewards farmers and producers for shifting to regenerative agriculture can have outsized impact. For example, Race to Resilience partner?Scale for Resilience ?this week detailed how it will scale financial access for 3 million farmers to nature-based solutions.
• More than 20 per cent of the food supply industry is already committed to net zero emissions. Businesses need to set science-based?targets to drive up regenerative agriculture and deforestation-free supply chains, and can do so by joining the new?Science Based Targets for Nature .

Converging Action into Exponential Change

Nearly three-quarters of global emissions are now covered by goals for reaching net zero. Now it’s time to translate those commitments into credible government policies and private sector plans for getting there.

The science is clear: for our best chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, we need to halve greenhouse gas emissions between 2020 and 2030, while radically regenerating nature. And that requires us - as a global economy - to hit breakthroughs in the largest and heaviest emitting sectors within the coming years.

The High-Level Climate Champions team’s newly updated report,?2030 Breakthroughs: Upgrading Our Systems Together , can catalyze this immediate action by pinpointing the needed tipping points across more than 30 sectors. These are underpinned by the?Climate Action Pathways ?reports, or roadmaps, for sectors.??

The immediate challenge is for 20 per cent of key actors in each sector to commit by 2023 to following their sector’s Climate Action Pathway, by joining the UN Race to Zero campaign or similar targets. They should then deliver on their first sector-specific target within the decade. This includes goals for renewables to provide at least 60 per cent of global power generation by 2030, for zero-emissions vehicles to make up 15 per cent of all car and van sales by 2025, and for 50 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent to be mitigated by land use, food and agriculture by 2030.?

In the finance sector, for example, price signals and profit motives will need to be corrected so that the true cost of climate change impacts is reflected in balance sheets, according to the newly released?climate action pathway for finance . Within the 2020s, policymakers, civil society, local governments, corporates and financial institutions will need to drive sectoral breakthroughs including a correction of market failures and closing of the valuation gap, a shift in long-term investment mindset that embeds the 2050 long-term target and steps needed to get there, and the embedding of climate-aware sustainable approaches to risk management and incentives.?

This is about driving systems change, and systems change is about converging action towards exponential - rather than linear - change.?

“The more we converge, the lower the risk, the lower the cost and the faster we can go,” COP26 High-Level Champion Nigel Topping says in his new TED Countdown talk:?Three Rules for a Zero-Carbon World . “So, what might have seemed a real stretch or even impossible just a few years ago seems eminently achievable now.”?

In Case You Missed It

• How do you see the?future of the Race?to Zero ? The High-Level Climate Champions team is still accepting written submissions, as part of a public consultation on how to drive cooperation and coordination within the climate action ecosystem.?
• Three Rules for a Zero-Carbon World : Watch Nigel Topping’s new TED Countdown talk, in which he shares three rules of radical collaboration that could positively disrupt global economic patterns.?
• The Marrakech Partnership?climate action pathway for finance , released by UN Climate Change, sets out the crucial role the finance sector can and must play in accelerating the transition to net zero - including pricing carbon to ensure the polluter pays the true cost of its impact.?
• Mangroves prevent more than US $65 billion in property damages from storms and reduce flood risk to some 15 million people every year, and are the most efficient system in the world for catching and storing CO2, according to the Global Mangrove Alliance’s inaugural?State of the World’s Mangroves Report .
• Africa’s abundant but untapped renewable energy resources can meet the huge rise in power demand expected by 2040, according to the?International Renewable Energy Agency .?To unlock the potential, Africa needs to revise its regional master plans away from fossil fuels and towards cheapening renewables.?
• The Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance launched?#heatseason ?in Europe. Mayors from across the continent joined to announce commitments to deploy scalable solutions to combat the impact of extreme heat.?
• A new?assessment of 100 oil and gas companies , based on the International Energy Agency’s scenario for net zero emissions by 2050, finds a systemic lack of accountability and action and a need for more investment and greater transparency. The assessment was carried out by the World Benchmarking Alliance, CDP and ADEME.?
• The Race to Resilience hosted its Africa Cities and Built Environment Day with the launch of Africa?Cities Race to Resilience, ?the?Africa Urban Water Resilience report ?and a new report on?financing a green transition? for South Africa.?
• The newly launched multi-stakeholder platform,?Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative , is designed to drive credible, net-zero aligned participation in voluntary carbon markets. The?consultation report ?makes clear how voluntary carbon markets can make a meaningful and significant contribution to meeting the Paris Agreement’s goals.
• Creating a domestic industry for solar water heaters can help transition countries that rely on fossil fuel imports for heating, or where electric boilers and heat pumps will strain power systems or set unaffordable household prices, according to another?IRENA report .
• Dear leaders: uproot the systems destroying our home, Ugandan climate activist Evelyn Acham writes in the Race to Zero’s?Our World In Your Hands ?series. You can write your own letter to leaders ahead of COP26?here .??

Enjoyed this round-up? Keep up to date with daily news from the Race to Zero, Race to Resilience and our partners on?racetozero.unfccc.int !

Mark Your Calendars

• IPCC releases its Sixth Assessment Report on climate change : 9 August
• International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples ?(virtual commemoration): 9 August
• International Youth Day : 12 August
• World Water Week : 23-27 August?
• IUCN World Conservation Congress : 3-11 September
• International Day of Clean Air for blue skies : 7 September
• UN General Assembly : 14-30 September
• Climate Week NYC : 20-26 September
• Global Climate Strike : 25 September
• Pre-COP26 event - Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition : 28-30 September?
• Pre-COP26, hosted by Italy : 30 September-2 October