From the OECD Agriculture Ministerial to COP27

As COP27 begins, people across the globe are also facing rising food prices and increased food insecurity. Now is the time for action, both to ensure a productive food system that can feed a growing population and to transform the agricultural sector to meet climate goals. Banner: Shutterstock/Angyalosi Beata
From the OECD Agriculture Ministerial to COP27
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Just two days before the start of COP27, 42 countries and the European Union signed on to a Declaration on Transformative Solutions for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems at the OECD. The Declaration is a strong statement of unity in the face of climate change. It acknowledges the need for agriculture and food systems to increase their contributions to climate mitigation to achieve the economy-wide goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

OECD Meeting of Agriculture Ministers 2022: Group Photo with Mr. Mathias Cormann, Secretary General of the OECD.

More specifically for governments, the Declaration articulates a shared vision of the actions needed to transform agriculture and food systems with a view to i) ensuring food security and nutrition ii) strengthening sustainability and iii) ensuring inclusive livelihoods. It underlines the key role of developing transformative and innovative policies towards more sustainable and resilient agriculture and food systems. To this end, it calls on countries to develop and implement coherent, whole-of-government policy packages; promote inclusive processes; increase investment in research and development and infrastructure; enhance research collaboration and knowledge sharing; strengthen international co-operation; strengthen the contribution of trade to agriculture and food systems transformation; and develop measures for local, national and global food systems.

And this acknowledgement comes not a moment too soon. As heads of state and governments from around the world gather in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt to discuss the climate crisis and how to address it, people across the globe are also facing rising food prices and, in some places, increased food insecurity. It’s clear that now is the time for action, both to ensure a productive food system that can feed a growing population and to transform the agricultural sector to meet climate goals.

I look forward to my interactions with leaders in Egypt as I engage with them on how the OECD—as a global leader in evidence-based policy analysis—can contribute to reaching climate goals that stretch from plate to planet.

What do climate-oriented solutions in agriculture look like? First, there are ample opportunities for agriculture to reduce both direct and indirect emissions. Second, agriculture also offers nature-based options to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, through carbon sequestration in biomass and soils. Importantly, these solutions can be achieved through practices that also raise productivity, which is necessary to feed a growing world population. OECD research shows that with a comprehensive policy package combining global emissions taxes and carbon sequestration subsidies, the sector could contribute to mitigation at a rate of 8 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent per year in 2050, which represents two thirds of current agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) emissions.

I look forward to my interactions with leaders in Egypt as I engage with them on how the OECD—as a global leader in evidence-based policy analysis—can contribute to reaching climate goals that stretch from plate to planet.




Join us in the OECD's COP27 Virtual Pavillioncheck out the sessions and register your place!

Join us in the OECD's COP27 Virtual Pavillion—check out the sessions and register your place!

Learn more about the impact of the OECD Meeting of Agriculture Ministers, which took place 3-4 November, where more than 45 Ministers of Agriculture from OECD Member and Non-Member countries agreed on concrete actions to contribute to Building Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems in a Changing Environment: Shared Challenges, Transformative Solutions

And learn about the OECD Meeting of Agriculture Ministers (3-4 November), where more than 45 Ministers of Agriculture from OECD Member and Non-Member countries will meet in Paris to agree on concrete actions to contribute to Building Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems in a Changing Environment: Shared Challenges, Transformative Solutions

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Go to the profile of Peter Kraneveld
over 1 year ago

What I sorely miss in Marion Jansen's report is what actions are to be envisaged (as opposed to in what fields action might be taken). One simple example. Cultivated meat is a reality. The only country in the WORLD where it is not blocked by legislation is Singapore. Go taste cultivated chicken there. It is juicier and guaranteed to be boneless. Or go to Maastricht to taste cultivated beef in the laboratories of Mosa Meat, a gleam in the eye of a university professor with a turnover of zero and no prospects of sales any time soon due to archaic legislation. Good intentions are fine, but if nothing happens afterwards, they remain empty promises.

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