This was one of the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement: to end world hunger while managing to limit global warming to +1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era. Yet, at every global climate conference – the COPs – the same criticism is systematically brought up by NGOs and scientists: agriculture and food do not occupy a sufficiently important place at the table.

On Sunday 10 December, however, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) took advantage of COP28 to make an impression. She unveiled a roadmap of actions to be taken by States to fight the two battles – food security and climate change – at the same time. A document, the institution assures, which must represent a "turning point", while "there is no more time to lose".

The global food system is one of the sectors most weakened by the effects of climate change, particularly because of its consequences on agriculture. For several years, malnutrition indicators have been on the rise: more than 9% of the world's population suffers from chronic hunger and a third live in a state of moderate or severe food insecurity, according to the FAO. "But food production is also one of the culprits of global warming since it accounts for about a third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions," notes Élise Cosquer, an advocacy analyst on food systems and climate crises for the NGO Action Against Hunger. "For a long time, some states or institutions presented the two issues as antagonistic struggles, saying that in order to feed the whole planet, we had to accept to produce more. But today, the reality is clear: it is our current food systems that are no longer working because hunger in the world is getting worse."

Oxfam agrees. "This FAO document is an important step forward because it makes it possible to deconstruct this false opposition between the two subjects," agrees Quentin Ghesquière, in charge of agriculture, food and climate issues for the NGO. "Today, many studies show that the problem behind food insecurity is above all access to and distribution of food," he insists.

National action plans in 2030

In its roadmap, FAO presents a series of actions to be taken to meet these two challenges at the same time. It calls on each State to draw up national action plans for COP30 in two years' time, in ten major areas (livestock, fishing, waste, etc.). Among the measures put forward, the FAO suggests, for example, strengthening "public subsidies to allow access to healthy diets for all populations", "reducing consumption in rich countries" and "developing agroecology tools".

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While "the measures to be put in place are still vague and not very concrete", deplores Élise Cosquer, the FAO is mainly putting forward numerical targets: the number of people suffering from chronic hunger must have decreased by 150 million by 2025 – around 735 million people were in this situation in 2022 according to the UN – and reach zero by 2030. By 2050, the entire world population must also be able to eat healthily.

At the same time, FAO has set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agri-food systems by 25% by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035, so that agriculture becomes a net carbon sink by 2050.

These are "ambitious objectives" – says Quentin Ghesquière – which "lay the groundwork for interesting and fundamental debates on how to achieve them". The text is the first chapter of three parts, to be published in 2024 and 2025. "That's what we're looking forward to: how we can concretely achieve these goals, by addressing the issues of finance and regional applications."

The question of financing promises to be central. According to a report published in October 2022 by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a coalition of private foundations, only 3% of public climate finance is spent on agriculture and food systems. Even more strikingly, the majority of developed countries – 62% – do not present any food systems-related measures in their "Nationally Determined Contributions" (NDCs), the national climate commitments to 2030. As for developing countries, only 4% of their quantified financial needs are earmarked for food systems transformation and resilience.

Multiplying funding

"While it is certainly insufficient for the moment, the text appears to be a reminder that we must act quickly," continues Quentin Ghesquière, while the subject is struggling to emerge as a major axis of the climate negotiations. Proof of this is on Monday 11 December, as the leaders present at the COP entered the final sprint for the adoption of a final agreement, the issue of agriculture and food almost disappeared.

However, COP28 had started well. The day after it opened, 134 states – including China, Brazil, the United States and the 2025 members of the European Union – rallied behind a proposal from the United Arab Emirates, the host country, and pledged to include agriculture and food in their national climate plans by <>. "All pathways to achieving the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement must include agriculture and food systems," the text said.

"It's positive," said Élise Cosquer of Action Against Hunger, who welcomed the fact that the text affirms the "right to food" as a framework for any action on food systems. "But this is still not enough because not all the commitments made on the sidelines of the official negotiations are binding, and often struggle to materialize."

Another criticism of the text: "The language remains vague, there are no concrete actions or quantifiable objectives," the analyst continues. "And it makes no mention of phasing out fossil fuels." However, according to an assessment conducted by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, food accounts for at least 15% of global demand for fossil fuels.

"There will be no concrete progress at this COP"

Above all, Élise Cosquer regrets having seen the subject quickly disappear from the official negotiations. "There will be no concrete progress on the subject of food at the end of this COP28," she said. This is due to blockages, from the very first discussions on agriculture and food, on the method to be adopted to set a framework for reflection. "Logistical and formal problems that hide all the tensions at stake in these negotiations and that have deprived us of discussion on the substance of the subject," she said.

The analyst would also have liked to see the axes of agriculture and food mentioned in the final text on the global stocktake, every word of which is hotly debated in the final sprint of COP28. "It's an emergency but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be accompanied by any political will. We know the solutions. We need to apply the principles of agroecology and increase public funding to support producers."

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