COP28: The UN’s net-zero food plan to save the 1.5-degree goal, combat climate ‘doomisim’

As COP28 heads into its final working days in Dubai, the UN’s agriculture wing launched on Sunday a ground-breaking plan that looks to transform the world’s agrifood systems from a net emitter to a carbon sink by 2050. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has identified 10 priority areas – such as livestock, soil and water, crops, diets and fisheries – where following the roadmap can help push the world closer to achieving ‘Zero Hunger’, the second of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The aim: to transform agrifood systems – which encompass how the food we eat is farmed or raised, how it is transported, and how and where we dispose of it – growing harvesting from net emitters to into a carbon sink by 2050, capturing 1.5 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions annually. The goal: To help to eliminate world hunger without driving the planet past the 1.5 degree limit for global warming as set by the Paris Agreement.

On the side lines of the UN climate conference in Dubai (COP28), UN News spoke to David Laborde, Director of the Agrifood Economics Division at FAO, who said that the roadmap is designed to avoid “doomism” and provides avenues to act today in a way that can benefit all now and in the future. “We need policymakers to act. We need the civil society to be mobilized and the private sector to understand that making better choices today means making investments more sustainable and more profitable for tomorrow.” While 120 action points may seem like a great deal, Mr. Laborde stressed that the end goal is to achieve “a system transformation where everyone has to play a role”.