Agriculture and climate action: an IICA website that will exhibit the collective work of countries in the Americas at COP28 – showcasing advances by the hemisphere’s agriculture sector in the area of sustainability
San Jose, 21 November 2023 (IICA) - “IICA at COP28, Collaborative Solutions for Climate Change” is the name and slogan of a webpage that the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture” has developed to inform the public about its activities at the 28th United Nations (UN) Conference of the Parties—otherwise known as COP28—on climate change, to be held from 30 November to 12 December in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The Conference of the Parties (or COP) is an annual summit where technical experts, ministers, heads of State and Government and representatives of non-governmental organizations come together to adoption decisions, with a view to achieving the objectives established in the fight against climate change.
More than 70,000 participants are expected to attend COP28, among them Heads of State and Government, ministers and senior government officials, representatives of international organizations, private sector leaders, academics and representatives of civil society organizations.
At the request of the governments of the countries of the Americas, IICA will recreate its Home of Sustainable Agriculture of the Americas pavilion, which made its debut in 2022 at COP27 in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El Sheik. On this occasion, the pavilion will be installed at the Expo City congress center in Dubai, showcasing and sensitizing the public about the role of the agrifood systems of the Americas in driving climate change solutions.
IICA Director General, Manuel Otero, remarked that, “Thanks to the support of the countries and private sector partners, the pavilion will be installed at COP28 in Dubai. It will provide public officials, international organizations, producers, companies, academia and civil society representatives with a privileged forum to demonstrate advances towards greater sustainability and the promotion of regenerative agriculture using a One Health approach that includes soil considerations, by a region that is playing a decisive role in food security and environmental conservation”.
Otero also stressed that, “Despite the sector’s marginal responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions, we are insisting that never again should it be left out of climate negotiations. There is a consensus within the region on the importance of acting in a coordinated manner to reduce levels of food insecurity, while also tackling the climate crisis”.
The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA); Bayer; Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO); Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU); CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean; Canadian Alliance for Net-Zero Agri-Food (CANZA); CropLife International; North American Meat Institute (NAMI); Nutrien; Producers Trust; Rabobank; US Dairy Export Council and US Soybean Export Council (USSEC) are some of the entities that have made the installation of the pavilion a reality.
Discussions at the pavilion will tackle issues such as data use to optimize natural resource management, strengthening of sustainability in different agricultural value chains, generational succession in agriculture, the role of biofuels in decarbonizing the transport sector, the bioeconomy as a bridge between production and the environment, the role of agrifood trade and the involvement of family farmers in climate action. There will also be multiple events addressing the commitment of the agriculture sector to environmental sustainability. All of these will be listed on the COP28 agenda of the IICA pavilion, available on the webpage.
The pavilion will be hosted at COP28 in response to a request by the IICA Member States for the organization’s support in pursuing collective actions and adopting joint positions to tackle the environmental crisis and at the same time assist the agriculture sector to access climate financing.
The Home of Sustainable Agriculture of the Americas pavilion will also provide a forum for discussion for the major stakeholders in the agriculture sector of the Americas, including ministers and secretaries of Agriculture, representatives of the private sector and academia, producers, climate change specialists and public and private sector authorities, who will be able to gain an in-depth understanding of the current status of climate governance in the region and the existing opportunities to strengthen international climate action.
As the specialized agency for agricultural and rural development, IICA’s actions stem from the recognition that agrifood systems are not failed systems, but must be strengthened; that agriculture, due to its economic clout and capacity to mitigate climate change, must be considered as part of the solution to current challenges; that science and technology must guide agrifood system transformations; and that farmers are key players, as they are the ones most able to improve the sustainable management of natural and production resources.
IICA’s institutional, policy, technical and scientific actions are solid examples of how agriculture in the Americas is aiming for greater sustainability and introducing resilient and climate smart modes of production that are extremely efficient in the use of natural resources and that are led by farmers.
These examples demonstrate that agriculture has the potential to reduce its vulnerability to climate risks and increase its contribution to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int