COP28: UN Timeline For Food and Agriculture

From the deep divers at AgricultureDive, December 11:

Here’s the UN’s roadmap for agriculture to reach net-zero emissions
A landmark report released at COP28 says wholesale changes to production practices and diets will be needed to keep temperatures in check while ensuring food security needs are met.

Transforming agriculture production practices, curbing food waste and reducing consumption of animal-based products in high-income economies are at the center of a United Nations plan to bring the agrifood sector in line with the Paris climate agreement.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization on Sunday released its first-ever roadmap for global food systems to adapt to climate change and keep global temperatures from soaring above 1.5 degrees celsius. The plan, which outlines 120 actions across 10 priority areas, aims to turn agriculture from a net emitter to a carbon sink over the next three decades.

“The agrifood system has the potential to actively contribute to global mitigation efforts, but substantial endeavors are essential in adaptation to achieve increased productivity with reduced resource consumption,” the report said.

UN’s timeline for food to hit net-zero

• 2025
  Emissions from drained carbon soils are cut by 5% compared to 2020.
• 2030
  Gross GHG emissions of agrifood systems cut by 25 percent.
• 2035
  Agrifood systems are CO2 neutral, only other GHG are net emitters.
• 2040
  N2O emissions of the agrifood systems are halved compared to 2020.
• 2045
  CH4 emissions of the agrifood systems are halved compared to 2020.
• 2050
  Agrifood systems are a net carbon-sink (-1.5 Gt CO2eq per year).

The release of the report marks the start of a three-year process for countries to draft climate action plans for food systems. The FAO will release a second version of the roadmap next year, with countries’ plans to be finalized at COP30 in Brazil.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the major goals and proposals from the FAO’s net-zero roadmap:

Livestock and nutrition
To meet the needs of the Paris climate agreement, some richer nations, the report says, will have to cut back on meat consumption. Livestock is responsible for up to 26% of agrifood system emissions....

....MUCH MORE

Here's the FAO roadmap:

And so on, infinity. 

Quanta Magazine

Oops, wrong roadmap. Here's

https://www.fao.org/interactive/sdg2-roadmap/en/

With 10 “pivotal domains” and 120 action points. About which the head of the Agrifood Economics Division of the FAO said:

...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”.

—U.N. newsroom, December 10, 2023