COP28 High Level Side Event: “Enhancing climate finance and data to avert, minimize and address Loss and Damage in agrifood systems” Opening Remarks

               

COP28

High Level Side Event:

“Enhancing climate finance and data to avert, minimize and address Loss and Damage

in agrifood systems” 

 

Opening Remarks

By

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

1 December 2023

 

Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen,  

 

Yesterday, the COP28 opened with historic agreement on the operationalization of the loss and damage fund to help vulnerable countries deal with the impacts of climate breakdown.

 

I extend my sincere congratulations to all countries, with special commendations to those, including the United Arab Emirates, the European Union, the United States of America, Germany, and Japan, for their important commitments to operationalize the fund.

 

These pledges are not just financial; they represent a shared acknowledgment that addressing the challenges of climate change is an urgent moral imperative.

 

Over the last decade, with the increasing climate shocks and events, loss and damage has emerged as a key aspect of climate policy.

 

Despite efforts to adapt and build resilience in the face of intensifying climate impacts, our agrifood systems continue experiencing loss and damage, hitting the most vulnerable the hardest.

 

Reducing loss and damage in agrifood systems will help eradicate extreme poverty, safeguard livelihoods, and boost food security and nutrition.

 

Data is critical for climate responsive policies, risk informed decision making, effective climate action and agrifood systems transformation.

 

For this, we need data on losses and damages, as well as on financial needs for effective action and strategic investments.

 

I am therefore pleased to launch the FAO Report on “Loss and Damage in Agrifood Systems – addressing gaps and challenges”.

 

This report is a crucial first step in quantifying the contribution of climate change to losses and damages, identifying knowledge gaps, and linking specific climate events to different losses and damages.

 

The report draws on the UNFCCC’s concept of loss and damage that includes both economic losses such as reduced productivity, and non-economic losses and damages such as loss of health and heritage.

 

It also refers to extreme events, like droughts and floods, and slow onset events, like biodiversity loss and sea level rise – both of which cause massive economic and non-economic loss and damage in agrifood sectors.

 

Let me share with you some facts from the report.

 

Over a third of countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions explicitly refer to “loss and damage” with agriculture as the single most impacted sector.

 

From 2007 to 2022, agricultural losses made up an average of 23 percent of total impact of disasters across all sectors, and over 65 percent of losses from droughts were in the agriculture sector.

 

In the last 30 years, USD 3.8 trillion worth of crops and livestock production was lost to disaster events.

 

As highlighted in this new report, with better data, tools, financing, and political commitment, we can achieve better production, better nutrition, better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

 

This calls for innovative agrifood solutions based on sustainable and resilient practices that can enhance the productivity and efficiency of systems. and the quality and diversity of food.

 

And there are measures to do so.

 

Aligning loss and damage actions with the conservation, restoration, and sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystems offers an effective approach to mitigate loss and damage, while providing ecological benefits and building resilience.  

 

FAO supports national policymakers in climate-focused decision-making through innovative initiatives.

 

For example, the Climate Risk Toolbox visualizes climate risk hotspots by identifying hazard probability, exposure, and vulnerability of agrifood systems and communities.

 

FAO’s Early Warning Early Action system, also known as forecast-based financing, can ensure early warning triggers lead to anticipatory action.

 

However, data, tools, and approaches can only be applied and scaled up with adequate investment and financing.

 

The new Loss and Damage Fund and an agreement on financing priorities is of upmost importance.

 

Support to countries must be targeted and strengthened so that loss and damage in agrifood systems can be addressed, especially to save lives and livelihoods of smallholder producers who are on the frontline of the climate crisis.

 

Addressing gaps and challenges associated with loss and damage in agrifood systems would accelerate our pathway to ending hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation.

 

The operationalization of the loss and damage fund agreed upon yesterday, as well as the important financial pledges made, have laid the groundwork for our pathway.

 

Thank you.