COP26: 45 countries pledge to farm sustainably

45 government’s pledge to protect nature and shift to more sustainable ways of farming. 

Approximately one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, forestry and other land use – creating an urgent need to reform the way we grow and consume food in order to tackle climate change.

In a bid to tackle this, countries from across the world have set out their commitment to transforming agriculture and food systems through policy reforms, research and innovation in order to reduce emissions and protect nature, whilst securing food and jobs.

This includes leveraging over US$4 billion of new public sector investment into agricultural innovation, including the development of climate-resilient crops and regenerative solutions to improve soil health, helping make these techniques and resources affordable and accessible to hundreds of millions of farmers.

Examples of national commitments aligned with this agenda include:

• Brazil’s plan to scale its ABC+ low carbon farming programme to 72m hectares, saving 1 billion tonnes of emissions by 2030
• Germany’s plans to lower emissions from land use by 25m tonnes by 203
• The UK’s aim to engage 75% of farmers in low carbon practices by 2030

The UK also announced funding of £500m to support the implementation of the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) Roadmap that was launched during the World Leaders Summit earlier this week, in which 28 countries are working together to protect forests while promoting development and trade. 

COP26 President, Alok Sharma said: ‘If we are to limit global warming and keep the goal of 1.5C alive, then the world needs to use land sustainably and put protection and restoration of nature at the heart of all we do.

‘The commitments being made today show that nature and land use is being recognised as essential to meeting the Paris Agreement goals, and will contribute to addressing the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.

‘Meanwhile, as we look ahead to negotiations in week two of COP, I urge all parties to come to the table with the constructive compromises and ambitions needed.’