Food security is a fundamental part of climate change adaptation and mitigation discussion. At the COP29, dabbed Finance COP, lobbyists and negotiators are calling for a significant increase in climate finance dedicated to agroecology—a proven pathway for resilient food systems that work with nature, not against it.
According to the World Bank, current financing and investment for agrifood systems transformation, which accounts for only 4.3% of total mitigation and adaptation finance, are insufficient. Moreover, communities and countries impacted by fragility or conflict face major hurdles as they try to adapt to climate change, but they receive the least support for building climate change resilience.
Sena Alouka, Executive Director of Togo’s Young Volunteers for the Environment and Chair of Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa’s Climate and Agroecology Working Group says, “To truly address climate change adaptation in Africa, we need funding commitments that support small-scale farmers and Indigenous communities, enabling a just transition to agroecology that centers biodiversity, food security, and local knowledge systems.”
During a panel discussion at COP29, Kaveh Zahedi, Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment, FAO said, “There is no climate solution without agrifood systems solutions.” Achieving this will require scaling up “fundamental system change” to address gaps and needs to keep climate change within the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C temperature target.
A third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from food systems. According to FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, this is as a result of the finance gap for transformational changes in food systems. Therefore, funding must be “just and sustainable,” which requires de-risking investments to make them more attractive.
“FAO and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) are “swimming fast against the current,” with 23 high impact programmes valued in total at USD1.4 billion and new efforts to leverage co-financing and share skills and expertise,” he highlighted.
Martien Van Nieuwkoop, Director for Agriculture Development, Gates Foundation pointed out during the panel discussion that, the acceleration of climate change has put agrifood systems in “uncharted territory.” He explained that addressing this requires innovation at the same scale as innovation in other sectors, such as energy and agrifood investments must be tailored to local contexts.
Pal Mai Deng, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, South Sudan, noted that people in rural areas are impacted by lack of services and access to markets, but there has been only limited investment in agriculture. Deng highlighted that only 4% of South Sudan’s arable land is cultivated and that finance is needed to implement policies to develop agriculture and irrigation. He said the government is devoting 10% of its annual budget to food security.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) investments to support adaptation, in vulnerable and fragile contexts, such as the recently approved GCF projects in Iraq and Somalia, led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), and in Burundi, led by the One Acre Fund investments, totaling USD 169 million, are crucial in combating food insecurity hand in hand with climate mitigation through agroecology.
Consequently, as discussions and negotiations continue in Baku, lobby groups such as AFSA, representing a diverse coalition of African civil society organizations, are advocating for agroecology as a just and transformative approach to addressing the climate crisis, enhancing resilience, and promoting food sovereignty across Africa.
