At Finance Day 4 of the UN Climate conference, COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, a group of global non-profit organisations and members of the Food & Climate Action Group, have urged leaders of high-income countries to reform policies for agriculture and food, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with international commitments, scientific recommendations and a recent proposal from the World Bank. Low-carbon food products like vegetables need public support and subsidies.
They produce fewer emissions but also require less land and water and contribute to healthier diets and reduced health costs.
Stephanie Maw, Senior UN Policy & Advocacy Manager at ProVeg International and co-chair of the NGO coalition, said: “The global food system is one of the most significant contributors to climate change, responsible for 33% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Animal agriculture alone accounts for up to 20% of those emissions, a number that is projected to rise if no meaningful action is taken.”
Akshath Kaimal, who leads the coalition’s finance subgroup, and works at TAPP Coalition: “Reforming agricultural practices, subsidies and food taxes and prioritizing plant-based food consumption are critical to meeting the Paris Agreement targets.
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“Current food systems disproportionately harm Indigenous communities and vulnerable groups in the Global South, where climate impacts are most severe.
“The newly established Loss and Damage (L&D) Fund provides an essential opportunity to support these communities, helping them recover from the economic damages caused by industrial agriculture.
“Our COP29 Declaration, signed by 4 nation States and 100+ NGOs has urged OECD countries and China to tax meat or start GHG-emission pricing (agri-ETS) to reduce emissions and cofinance the L&D Fund with (part of the) tax revenues”.
In a statement, the groups stated, “Eleven months ago, during the last UN Climate Conference in Dubai, world leaders signed the COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels.
“Now, we urge world leaders to take the next step at COP29 in Baku or COP30 in Belém and commit to ‘just transition away from meat and dairy overconsumption’ for the sake of long-term global food security and climate resilience.
“Meat and dairy accounts for 14.5% to 19.6% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“Overconsumption is especially high in OECD countries and China, far exceeding Dietary Guidelines and Planetary Boundaries, as well as the Planetary Health Diet.
“We call on Ursula von der Leyen, Keir Starmer, Justin Trudeau, Xi Jinping and other world leaders to make meaningful commitments.”
The animal agriculture sector is a key driver of land-use change and biodiversity loss, causing 13 billion hectares of deforestation annually, due to land conversion for agricultural uses as pastures or cropland, with detrimental effects on water, soil, biodiversity, and climate change.
“The total global herd size in “farmed animal” units is projected to rise by 37 up to 46 percent between 2012 and 2050, which does not align with the Paris Agreement goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
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