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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An additional $9 billion in funding was announced Friday during U.N. climate talks to address agriculture’s role in the climate crisis.
The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM) is a joint initiative led by the United States and the United Arab Emirates that debuted at the Glasgow climate talks two years ago and has invested $17 billion in agriculture and food systems innovation. Food systems – all processes involved in making, transporting and handling food – are responsible for about a third of the greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet.
Countries have been meeting at the annual Conference of the Parties to discuss and negotiate how to combat climate change, which has put the planet on conflict with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since the industrial age. With difficult negotiations still underway over how aggressively countries can agree to cut fossil fuel use, it is easier for countries and companies to announce funding for projects not directly related to the issue.
What is unique about this year’s COP28 summit is the focus on agriculture. “We will not reach 1.5 degrees if we do not address the food and agriculture sectors,” Mariam Almheiri, UAE Minister of Climate and Environment, told a news conference in Dubai on Friday.
Mario Herrero, a professor of food systems and global change at Cornell University, said the funding announced Friday is sufficient and will support enough different approaches to be a good start. But he added that the real test will be to see if more money comes in and whether the projects are held accountable for what they say they are doing.
“We need to monitor this very carefully to see if this is to a large extent ‘greenwashing,'” Herrero said.
Past projects funded by the initiative include building a $500 million agricultural processing plant in Nigeria, restoring degraded rangelands in Brazil and supporting research to reduce synthetic nitrogen.
The new projects funded cover a wide range of areas. Some plans, such as the $500 million Regenerative Agriculture Action Agenda, have no single definition but involve a range of technologies that encourage farmers to switch to lower-emission practices. Others target food manufacturing and processing or animal feed and fertilizers. The most futuristic ones range from developing microbes to store carbon in soil to using food-safe industrial waste to produce microalgae that could help grow oysters on land.
Many programs target low- and middle-income countries, where farmers often have fewer technologies available to combat climate change. Although some projects aim to reduce waste, none of the new projects mentioned explicitly focus on reducing consumption. Rich countries eat more foods such as meat and dairy, which account for the vast majority of global food-related emissions.
Herrero said if the funding could help low- and middle-income countries adapt to climate change while helping them reduce emissions, that would be a good thing.
“Now the hard work begins,” Herrero said.
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Wallin reported from Chicago.
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AP’s climate and environment coverage is supported by multiple private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The Associated Press is solely responsible for all content.
Melina Walling and Joshua Bickel, The Associated Press
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