COP30: Coalition demands climate finance reform for just food system transitions

The Action on Food Hub will return to COP30 in Brazil this November, aiming to hold climate diplomacy to account and push for policy outcomes for a just transition to healthier, sustainable, and resilient food systems. 

Brazil’s vision for the high-level conference in Belém is to address the intertwined global crises of climate change and biodiversity loss while ensuring progress toward achieving sustainable development goals. However, expectations over outcomes remain mixed, as experts have often criticized UN climate talks for a lack of concrete follow-through on commitments.

The Action on Food is an initiative between the Food Systems Partnership, convened by EIT Food, and the Food4Climate Pavilion, convened by ProVeg International. It came together for the first time at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, setting out to make a stronger case of collaboration across the entire food system, including with marginalized groups.

“Climate finance will continue to be a strong advocacy point going into COP30. COP29 did not exactly deliver on the needs of developing countries and marginalized communities, including smallholder farmers, youth or Indigenous Peoples,” Juliette Tronchon, head of UN Affairs at ProVeg International, tells Food Ingredients First.

At last year’s COP, over 300 actors, including businesses, financial institutions, farmers, and civil society, agreed on strengthening four key areas.

These were scaling and reorienting finance to incentivize and fund sustainable and equitable food systems, bolstering and implementing current goals, policies, and accountability mechanisms at all levels, including farmers and local communities in policymaking, and highlighting food systems in the Rio Convention Summits.

Going into COP30, Tronchon says F&B companies can drive progress with stronger public-private partnerships.

“Public-private partnerships can support de-risking investment in food systems to help climate finance reach under-represented communities. Food companies can de-risk climate finance for smallholder farmers by offering technical assistance, providing longer-term contracts to farmers using regenerative techniques, and supporting insurance and other risk-sharing mechanisms.”

The hub’s confirmed partners for this year’s conference include the Environmental Defense Fund, Coalition of Action for Soil Health (CA4SH), Tetra Pak, Netherlands Development Organisation, Global Landscapes Forum, and the UN Industrial Development Organisation.

Beyond voluntary pledges

Civil society organizations and political leaders of smaller nations, more vulnerable to climate change, have consistently voiced frustration with voluntary pledges and a lack of concrete action at the event.

The COP30 presidency at a press conference today.Last year, Papua New Guinea skipped the event in protest of “empty promises and inaction” toward small island nations facing devastating consequences of climate change. These include rising sea levels contaminating freshwater sources and straining agriculture and food security.

Additionally, developing countries demanded US$1.3 trillion annually for climate change mitigation and adaptation, which the Center for International Environmental Law said was a fraction of what developed nations spend on fossil fuel subsidies yearly.

However, COP29 ended with a financial goal of US$300 billion.

“While our community has long pushed for policy advocacy and has supported the development of multilateral voluntary pledges, we are still striving for more on-the-ground action. The food community has, in many ways, already moved from theory to delivery and are implementing projects that are creating impact,” notes Tronchon.

“Many of our partners are working with countries and supporting them in enforcing actions from voluntary pledges. CA4SH, for example, implemented the Youth4Soil initiative to create a network of youth leaders sharing insights and techniques on soil health to implement globally.”

Deforestation focus

Host country Brazil’s rise as the world’s largest beef exporter and its booming soy industry is known to have caused widespread deforestation in the Amazon. Tronchon says Action on Food Hub will address the strong connection between deforestation and agriculture at COP30.

“This cross-cutting theme sits between biodiversity, local livelihoods, and agriculture — meaning multiple stakeholders are affected by agriculture-driven deforestation. The current situation in Brazil will allow us to bring diverse stakeholders together across various sectors to discuss solutions.”

Tronchon says the hub fundraises yearly to integrate marginalized communities into the COP conversation.

“This year is no different, and regardless of the decrease in public funding to support them, our network is creating plans to ensure that the global majority is present in what is supposed to be the people’s COP this year.”