Tackling climate challenge

Buried among the flurry of announcements made at the Leaders Summit on Climate was a new initiative to address a substantial driver of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: food systems. One-third of global emissions come from the production, distribution and consumption of food around the world, and yet, the agriculture-climate connection is often overlooked.

The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (or AIM for Climate) addresses this critical piece of the climate puzzle by committing participating countries to significantly increase agricultural research and development (R&D) over the next five years to reduce GHG pollution and enhance the resilience of our food systems. Spearheaded by the United Arab Emirates, with support from the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, Denmark, Israel, Singapore, Australia, and Uruguay, the initiative will seek to garner the support of dozens more countries ahead of the UN Food Systems

Summit in September and UN

Climate Change Conference

(COP26) this November. We at the

UN Foundation, along with many of our partners, are actively working to support the summit and the conference.

Transformative R&D in the agri-food sector can be a crucial vehicle for tackling climate change. Sustainable farming practices can help farmers build resilience against future environmental and economic shocks - and many of them also offer significant climate mitigation opportunities.

Among the most important practices that would significantly benefit from increased R&D are improved soil management, reduction of food loss and waste, precision agriculture and enhanced livestock management.

First, better soil management more forests, thereby avoiding on farms, including practices such emissions from land use change not as reduced tillage, can build carbon to mention preserving biodiversity in the soil while increasing productivity. and ecosystems. We still Higher yields will likely have much to learn about how to help ease the pressure to cut down most effectively store carbon in the

‘‘Among the most important practices that would significantly benefit from increased R&D are improved soil management, reduction of food loss and waste, precision agriculture and enhanced livestock management.”