The US and the United Arab Emirates led an initiative at COP27 to assist global agriculture to adapt to a changing climate as well as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through technological innovation.
The innovation has since garnered over $8 billion in funding commitments, double the amount which was initially punted.
Launched just over a year ago, the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate) seeks to speed up innovation in “climate-smart” agriculture globally by 2025, as part of efforts to contain global warming below 1.5ºC.
Euronews reported last week that at the COP27 climate change talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, the initiative “announced commitments for $7 billion of investments from 42 governments and $1bn in innovation initiatives aimed at small-holder farmers in developing economies, new technologies, agro-ecological research and methane reduction”.
Global agriculture is experiencing severe negative impacts due to climate change but is also one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions which cause global warming.
“AIM will assist farmers to adapt to challenges that are becoming more and more frequent over the last few years,” said US Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack.
Vilsack makes reference to agricultural productivity losses linked to climate change and higher input costs resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
“I think there’s an opportunity here for us – for the United States in particular – but for large-scale agriculture, to help inform smallholders about the knowledge and information we’re getting about more efficient use, more precise use of fertiliser and other inputs which can lower costs for farmers and also without jeopardising productivity,” Vilsack told Reuters.
Agriculture could get to net zero “a bit faster than maybe some of the other industries that are commonly discussed when we talk about climate”, he said.
“I think there’s just tremendous carbon sequestration capacity, there are tremendous opportunities to reduce methane, there are tremendous opportunities to convert agricultural waste into a variety of products that would significantly reduce the greenhouse gas footprint of agricultural production.”
Vilsack said the UAE, which imports about 80% of its food and will host the COP28 climate talks in 2023, wanted to help shore up production in food exporting countries as well as boost self-reliance through innovation.
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