The COP28 presidency announced the launch of a joint technical cooperation group to support the implementation of the "COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Food Systems, Agriculture, and Climate Action." This announcement occurred during an event titled "Mobilizing Climate Action and Updating Nationally Determined Contributions for 2025 through Sustainable Agriculture and Climate-Resilient Food Systems" at the Bonn Climate Change Conference, which started today and will continue until June 13. This event marks a significant milestone in advancing the application of the "COP28 UAE Declaration" aimed at transforming agricultural and food systems to address climate change challenges and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The announcement of the "Joint Technical Cooperation Group" (TCC) was made for the first time on "Food, Agriculture, and Water Day" during COP28, comprising a coalition of international partners collaborating to provide technical support to countries and help achieve the declaration's objectives. Adnan Amin, CEO of COP28, emphasized the importance of launching this group, noting that COP28 was able to highlight the significance and impact of the relationship between climate, food, and agriculture at the highest levels. "Food, Agriculture, and Water Day" at COP28 saw major announcements regarding global water scarcity and food security.
Amin explained that the "COP28 UAE Declaration" regarding sustainable food systems and climate action has received massive international support, with 159 countries endorsing it thus far, representing over 80% of the global agricultural GDP, 70% of the world's farmers, and 80% of global emissions attributed to agriculture. He stated that these countries agreed on the importance and influence of the relationship between climate change, food systems, and agriculture, and the need to address the imbalances in this system to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and the provisions of the "UAE Agreement." This includes maintaining the potential to prevent the rise in global temperature from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius and meeting the global adaptation goal, as well as countries fulfilling commitments made at COP28 and developing climate plans to enhance food provision for future generations.
The "COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Food Systems, Agriculture, and Climate Action," the first of its kind in the history of the COP conferences, highlights the necessity of protecting the most vulnerable populations from the impacts of climate change by focusing on climate action in agriculture and food systems. It stipulated that COP29 would be the first stop for reviewing progress in implementation, ensuring continuity leading up to COP30.
The event "Mobilizing Climate Action and Updating Nationally Determined Contributions for 2025 through Sustainable Agriculture and Climate-Resilient Food Systems," which witnessed the launch of the "Joint Technical Cooperation Group," is a crucial starting point for mobilizing efforts to assist countries in achieving the declaration’s goals, which include updating nationally determined contributions to include food systems and enacting legislative changes to steer investments toward climate action through agriculture and food systems. This event came following the intensive efforts of the founding entities of the "Joint Technical Cooperation Group" to develop the principles and methods needed to support the countries most affected by climate impacts in accelerating and scaling up climate action.
In the coming months, group partners will begin responding to requests from countries, including developing more transparent collaboration pathways among partners to ensure national priorities are addressed, identify problems, find solutions, and coordinate the expansion of technical cooperation and enhance its impact. The "Joint Technical Cooperation Group" includes the COP28 presidency, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Africa Green Revolution Alliance, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, the Global Institute for Green Growth, and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.
