Ag a Major Focus of COP28 Climate Talks: USDA, Ag Groups Focus on Production, Incentives, and the Long Game at COP28

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November 30, 2023

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by Chris Clayton (DTN Progressive Farmer) ... COP28 will put more focus on agriculture and food than any of the previous COP events.

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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told USDA staff and a group of industry stakeholders Wednesday that USDA and the Biden administration will show up to the COP laying out a series of investments in conservation and renewable energy. There will be "significant announcements" and commitments that will be hammered out over the next two weeks, he said. Vilsack talked like a coach gearing up for a season opener. The event was at USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C., but also livestreamed.

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At the heart of the U.S. efforts is the $3.1 million Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities, which USDA expects will reach as many as 60,000 farmers in the next few years of enrollment. Vilsack pointed to 175 farming practices and more than 90 commodities tied to the program. Along with that goes the $19.5 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act to boost climate-smart practices in USDA's traditional suite of conservation programs.

"America can talk about this and can actually show they are doing it. Many countries can talk about plans they have. We can show what we're doing," Vilsack said.

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Ohio farmer Fred Yoder, a veteran of several COPs, also spoke at USDA's send-off event, even though he is not attending this year. He said he is still too busy harvesting corn right now.

"It's the best crop I have harvested in my 50 years of farming," Yoder said. "It's wet, but it's still the best, and I use climate-smart practices."

Yoder, a leader in Solutions From the Land, had a message for USDA and other groups: they need to ensure they put farmers at the center of discussions and focus heavily on productivity and resilience.

"I am a farmer. I know how farmers think, and farmers can push back really hard, very quickly," Yoder said. "So, we have to figure out ways to incentivize farmers to maybe take a look at doing something differently."

MORE US FARMER VOICES

Ernie Shea, executive director of Solutions From the Land, will lead a delegation of nine farmers who will split time at the conference. In an interview, Shea said the gameplan for his group at the COP is always to bring the voice of American farmers to the climate summit to offer a counterweight to some of the more extreme environmental arguments.

"These forums are always platforms where all kinds of actors show up wanting to change agriculture," Shea said. "For many of them, their core message is the food and agriculture system is broken, it is contributing massively to greenhouse gas emissions and we need to turn things around. They typically focus on agroecology as a preferred solution. They shun technology and innovation, and they don't embrace incentive approaches for farmers to help themselves and the planet."

More U.S. agricultural groups are attending the COP events now, which Shea said, "is refreshing and good." The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance, for instance, has gotten more engaged in recent COP events and is sending a group of board members. The U.S. Soybean Export Council, U.S. Grains Council, the U.S. Dairy Export Council, and the North American Meat Institute are just a few of the groups expected to participate in this year's conference.

"There's a long list," Shea said. "Many of them have events at the COP this year. That's a new piece of the puzzle that more ag groups are showing up, and we welcome that because agriculture is so diverse that we need multiple voices."

A key for U.S. agriculture is incentivizing action rather than prescribing it. "This is where the fault lines start to form," Shea said. "We're there saying follow our guiding principles, while others are there saying we need to impose limits such as restricting livestock in certain areas. There are groups that really take a government-centric, command-and-control approach. We're saying there's a downside to doing that."

PLAY THE LONG GAME

At USDA's pre-COP event, Robert Bonnie, USDA's Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation, repeated an emphasis that a growing global population also demands food production and farm productivity are maintained in the climate talks. He also said the U.S. delegation needs to stress that the U.S. gameplan for climate-smart agriculture works.

"We have to prove this voluntary, incentive-based approach can work, and science is critical to that, and being able to measure and monitor and report on our results is critical," Bonnie said. READ MORE

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Excerpt from Solutions from the Land: “For us (SfL), when we go to COP, we do not enter the conference with the sky is falling mentality,” (SfL President Ernie) Shea explains. “We go in with a Climate Smart Agriculture framework – talking about ways we as an industry can provide sustainable intensification of production, adaptation and improvements of resiliency, and how farmers are delivering mitigation services such as renewable fuels and carbon sequestration along the way.”

Shea and his SfL cohorts will serve as observers during the policy negotiating sessions, introduce stakeholders to pivotal industry voices, as well as facilitate three knowledge-sharing track events at the Sustainable Agriculture in the Americas Pavilion. Presentations include:

Strengthening collection, analysis and use of agriculture and food system data for SDG Attainment – Saturday, Dec. 2 at 10 a.m.
Circular Bioeconomy Systems for Concurrently Delivering Agroecosystems Services and Food & Nutrition Security – Monday, Dec. 4 at noon
Biofuels and Circular Economy: A Roadmap to Net Zero – Monday, Dec. 11 at 1:30 p.m.

In addition, SfL delegation members will be speaking at county and other stakeholder events over the course of the conference.

“I think agriculture is on a higher plateau this year,” Shea says. “The world’s agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2050 cannot be achieved unless agriculture is enabled to participate and deliver solutions. That’s why we are going.”

Shea says these conversations are not meant to lead to regulation or new rules farmers are meant to operate by, but rather these conversations are meant to give a voice to the often voiceless and hopefully provide new ways the industry can be assisted in delivering solutions to climate and other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). READ MORE

Excerpt from Solutions from the Land: SfL’s presentations and recommendations on data policy guidance and pathways to scale up the adoption of a circular biological approach to farming were well received by COP participants. Watch the IICA recordings of these sessions and learn more:

SfL’s farmer delegates in attendance for week two of the COP will continue to share our vision of a 21st Century Agricultural Renaissance where sustainable farms, ranches and forests not only improve food and nutrition security but concurrently deliver high-value ecosystem services.

SfL’s next presentation is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 11 at 1:30 p.m. UTC located at the Sustainable Agriculture of the Americas Pavilion. SfL Co-Chair and California farmer, A.G. Kawamura, will be moderating Biofuels and Circular Economy: A Roadmap to Net Zero. For those tuning into the panel discussion from home, the recording will be added to IICA’s YouTube page. READ MORE

Excerpt from Solutions from the Land: On Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, Solutions from the Land Co-Chair A.G. Kawamura addressed the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) on behalf of the UNFCCC Farmers Constituency, addressing the impasse in work to construct a roadmap for the Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on agriculture.

Kawamura highlighted this fundamental problem in his remarks at the plenary session of the parties and encouraged the delegations to engage with a renewed sense of urgency, recognizing that the timeline to build more climate smart and resilient global food systems cannot wait for a perfect plan. “We need progress not more discussion. After all, successful agriculture sustains civilization” said Kawamura.

Although nearly 140 countries signed onto the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Change, “The failure to agree on a roadmap to implementation is a major disappointment and a failure to move beyond process to implementation,” said Solutions from the Land President Ernie Shea, who led SfL’s week one delegation to COP 28. “The lack of constructive dialogue and willingness to find common ground means that a year has been wasted.” As of now, the impasse effectively shuts down work to advance Sharm el-Sheikh joint work discussions until June 2024.

Solutions from the Land appreciates the honor of representing UNFCC Farmers Constituency and farmers across the globe in this important intervention before the assembled parties and will continue to press for action to unlock agricultural solutions to climate change and other global challenges over the course of the conference. READ MORE