Why Food Systems Must Lead the COP30 Climate Agenda

Small-scale Zimbabwean farmer Agnes Moyo.

As COP30 enters its second week in Brazil, the urgency to tackle climate change has never been greater, just as the challenge of feeding a growing global population becomes more pressing.

During high-stakes negotiations on climate finance, nature conservation, fossil fuels and renewable energy, farmers, activists and scientists are calling for food and agriculture to take centre stage on the COP30 agenda.

In Zimbabwe’s Umguza District, farmer Agnes Moyo watched her neighbour’s maize—a national staple—wilt as severe drought struck. Yet her pearl millet thrived in simple hand-dug basins enriched with seed and manure. She harvested ten 50-kilogram bags of millet.

Thanks to conservation farming, known locally as Intwasa/Pfumvudza, Moyo had enough food to feed her family until the next planting season.

“Conservation farming is profitable and helped me harvest even during drought,” she says. “Intwasa is a method farmers should adopt, especially for drought-tolerant crops like millet and sorghum.”

In Harare, 290 kilometres away, Elizabeth Mpofu is preparing her 10-hectare environmentally friendly farm, which grows sorghum, pearl millet, indigenous maize, finger millet, groundnuts, Bambara nuts and pulses. Her agroecology methods improve soil fertility, conserve water and avoid industrial pesticides.

“Agroecology strengthens food sovereignty by encouraging local production and consumption,” says Mpofu, who has practised it for 25 years. As former General Coordinator of Via Campesina—representing 200 million peasants—she helped lead the campaign for the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants in 2018.

She urges world leaders at COP30 to support small-scale farmers and sustainable agriculture by implementing this declaration.

Experts note that sustainable food production is essential for combating climate change. Farming methods such as agroecology and conservation agriculture are lifelines for farmers facing climate impacts.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states that agrifood systems contribute one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions, yet agriculture remains marginal in climate action.

Transforming agrifood systems through sustainable production, waste reduction and clean energy can help the world meet its climate goals, experts say.

Although food and agriculture have long been sidelined in climate talks, that is changing, says Danielle Nierenberg, President of Food Tank.

“COP30 is called the Implementation COP. Agriculture must be part of the conversation or we won’t make enough progress toward limiting warming to 1.5°C,” she told IPS. She stresses the need for governments, the private sector and philanthropy to make catalytic investments supporting farmer resilience.

Ten years after the historic Paris Agreement, the 1.5°C target is slipping away. COP30 faces immense pressure to deliver a bold plan to reduce emissions. The Agreement recognises the vital role of agriculture and food systems in both adaptation and mitigation.

Agriculture is increasingly affected by climate-driven extreme events—from crippling droughts and floods to high temperatures and ocean acidification—triggering a global food crisis.

An FAO analysis shows that agriculture has suffered losses of hundreds of billions of dollars annually—about 5 per cent of global agricultural GDP over three decades. Between 2007 and 2022, agriculture accounted for 23 per cent of disaster-related losses, with drought responsible for more than 65 per cent.

Nearly all countries now include agriculture in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). A 2024 FAO analysis found that 94 per cent of NDCs mention agriculture for adaptation and 91 per cent for mitigation.

Countries have pledged to reduce methane emissions from livestock, curb deforestation for farmland and promote carbon storage through agroforestry, conservation agriculture and agroecology.

However, food systems still lag in global negotiations. Edward Mukiibi, President of Slow Food, argues that powerful agribusiness and fossil fuel interests have kept agriculture at the margins.

“The global climate architecture lacks a formal negotiation track for food systems,” he says. “This allows governments to focus on easier targets like transport and energy, letting industrial agriculture avoid accountability.”

He warns that despite strong rhetoric, structural inertia persists. “The failure to integrate agriculture was deliberate—meant to protect the dominant industrial model.”

While fossil fuels are central to COP30 debates, it remains unclear whether a phase-out or phase-down will prevail.

Agroecology works, but adoption remains slow

Fossil fuel-free food systems already exist through agroecology, yet the world has been slow to embrace them.

“The global industrial food system is engineered for centralised control and corporate profit,” Mukiibi notes. “This clashes with agroecology’s decentralised, community-driven nature.”

Teresa Anderson, ActionAid International’s Global Lead on Climate Justice, says agriculture has featured in climate talks on adaptation, early warning systems, soils and livestock. She stresses the need for agriculture to be included in just transition negotiations.

A recent IPES-Food report finds that fossil fuels shape how the world produces, distributes and consumes food. The Fuel to Fork report calls for major shifts to break this dependence.

Raj Patel, IPES-Food panel member and professor at the University of Texas, says global appetite for ending fossil fuel reliance is rising despite US$7 trillion in annual subsidies.

“This isn’t a technology problem—it’s political,” Patel says. “Shifting investments from climate-damaging subsidies to agroecology can deliver enormous benefits, from soil health to food security.”

Food systems consume 15 per cent of all fossil fuels and 40 per cent of petrochemicals globally, yet they remain largely absent from national climate pledges.

Researchers insist that climate goals are impossible without removing fossil fuels from food systems. They urge governments at COP30 to phase out fossil fuel and agrochemical subsidies and shift toward agroecology and resilient local food systems.

“Brazil has a powerful voice on climate and food—but it risks losing credibility if its actions in the Amazon contradict its stance at COP30,” Patel warns. “Brazil can lead—but it must walk the talk.”

This week, 43 countries and the European Union signed the Belém Declaration, pledging to prioritise hunger and poverty alleviation in climate action.

The Declaration commits to supporting small-scale farmers, fishers, pastoralists and Indigenous peoples—those most affected by climate change and key to sustainable food systems.

IPES-Food welcomed the move, noting that implementation will test global political courage.

Elisabetta Recine, IPES-Food expert and president of Brazil’s National Food and Nutrition Security Council (Consea), says Brazil has lifted 40 million people out of hunger in two years by prioritising family farmers, Indigenous communities and access to healthy local food.

“This declaration is about taking Brazil’s hunger-beating formula global,” she says. “The message is clear: tackling hunger, inequality and climate change must go hand in hand.”