COP28 Day 2 Getting Food
King Charles gave a speech at COP28 on Day 2
“The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth.”
The COP28 Presidency today announced that 134 world leaders have signed up to its landmark agriculture, food and climate action declaration: the ‘COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action.’
Also announced was the mobilization of more than USD$2.5 billion in funding to support food security while combatting climate change and a new partnership between the UAE and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for food systems innovation.
The Declaration addresses both global emissions while protecting the lives and livelihoods of farmers who live on the frontlines of climate change.
Nations should now include food emissions in their plans to tackle climate change – also called Nationally Determined Contributions.
The 134 signatory countries to the Declaration are home to over 5.7 billion people and almost 500 million farmers, produce 70 percent of the food we eat, and are responsible for 76 percent all emissions from global food systems or 25 percent of total emissions globally.
The Declaration will help in strengthening food systems, building resilience to climate change, reducing global emissions, and contributing to the global fight against hunger, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Declaration stresses the need for common action on climate change, which adversely affects a large portion of the world’s population, particularly those living in vulnerable countries and communities.
Food contributes a third of the greenhouse gases.
WCAS
The progress in energy talks pre COP28 was published today. The World Climate Action summit starts today.
Targets are tripling global installed renewable energy capacity to 11,000 GW by 2030 and doubling annual energy efficiency improvements in the same timeframe. “In parallel, fossil fuel demand and supply must phase-down this decade to keep 1.5°C within reach.
There was a strong consensus that climate finance and clean investment will need to be significantly scaled up, with the IEA estimating $4.5 trillion will be needed annually by the early 2030s.
Developed economies should move faster and support developing economies.
In 2023 18% of the World’s energy is produced from renewable sources. In the UK this figure is 35.9% with the majority of this being wind power.
ALTÉRRA
The UAE announced a US$30 billion commitment to the newly launched climate investment fund, ALTÉRRA, that will drive forward international efforts to create a fairer climate finance system, with an emphasis on improving access to funding for the Global South.
It aims to steer private markets towards climate investments and focus on transforming emerging markets and developing economies, where traditional investment has been lacking due to the higher perceived risks across those geographies.
