COP29 UN SYSTEM PAVILION SIDE EVENT Making Climate Finance Work for Climate Action in Agriculture and Food Security

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In China, we tell the story of the Dragon Gate.  The Dragon Gate is on top of a waterfall on a legendary mountain. Every year, the fish in the river below swim against the powerful current. All the fish try hard, but only a few are strong and brave enough to make the final leap. Those that leap over the waterfall and through the Dragon Gate are transformed into a powerful dragon.

We tell this story to our children to encourage them to work hard and keep going.

When we have a promise of a great reward in front of us, we must not fail at the final challenge.

Today, we have the opportunity within our reach, if we are bold enough to take it, to:

• One: cut emissions and take a massive step towards meeting Nationally Determined Contributions;
• Two: increase food security and resilience; and
• Three: boost development and improve livelihoods for billions of people.

These rewards can be unlocked by enhancing climate finance for agrifood systems.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Agrifood systems hold the solutions to the interlinked challenges facing people and the planet: climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, food insecurity and poverty.  The Paris Agreement and the SDGs are beyond reach without agrifood systems transformation.

Together with high-level government representatives and key funding mechanisms we can explore more tailored approaches for delivering climate and livelihood support to local actors.

One third of greenhouse gas emissions come from the agrifood sector.

But only 4.3 percent of climate finance goes to agrifood systems. And that proportion is decreasing.

To meet net zero and climate-resilience targets, global agrifood systems need about USD 1 trillion of investment every year, from now until 2030. 

In 2020, only USD 29 billion were invested in sustainable agrifood systems.

We need a 35-fold increase!

And this is why this meeting is so vital.

We must come together as an international community – including policymakers, the private sector, investors, and farmers – to identify the finance gaps and close them. It is not just the amount of funding, it is also about the quality of that funding. Climate finance must be just and sustainable.

Investors should offer suitable financial instruments to help farmers transition to more sustainable agriculture, with adequate repayment and grace periods.

Governments and the international community should de-risk investments in sustainable agrifood systems and make them more attractive to investors.

FAO works to bring finance where the need is greatest: small-scale farmers, producers and agrifood systems.

We are swimming fast against the current!

In 2017, our first Green Climate Fund project was valued at USD 90 million.

Now, we have 23 high-impact projects, 94 readiness grants and eight partner projects for a total value of USD 1.4 billion.

In the last six years, we tripled the size of our Global Environment Facility portfolio to USD 1.9 billion in investments, leveraging USD 13.4 billion in co-financing.

Our new Food Systems Integrated Program can be a game changer in the 32 countries that have chosen to confront their environment and climate challenges through solutions that only agriculture can provide.

We help countries access finance, we share our skills and expertise, and enhance knowledge exchange on investments in food security, climate resilience and the greening agenda.

We are proud to host the Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation (FAST) Partnership, initiated by the Egyptian Presidency at COP27, to help countries identify and access climate finance to place agrifood systems at the heart of their climate change policies.

At COP28 last year, over 160 parties signed the Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action.

This year, we take stock of progress towards implementation. And we must recognise that not enough finance is on the table.

This COP29 has an ambition to set a new collective global goal on finance, which will have a significant impact on the agrifood sector.

The Azerbaijan COP29 Presidency’s Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers aims to bring real change on the ground for over one billion farmers, and over four billion people whose livelihoods depend upon agrifood systems.

It will encourage investment through strong collaborations with multilateral and agricultural development banks, and it will strengthen the role of communities in climate adaptation, including women, Indigenous Peoples, and young farmers.

FAO will continue to convene and elevate the voice of governments and local actors in dialogue with the financial mechanisms of the Convention, as well as with key multilateral development banks.

Today’s event will contribute to identifying solution pathways, good practices, and new innovative finance schemes that cut through to where funding is most needed thereby contributing to achieving the Paris Agreement goals.

Let us be like the brave fish in the river and make the leap into transformation, especially as 2024 is the Year of the Dragon – considered to be the most auspicious of all!

A coordinated, ambitious push from us can unlock the climate finance we need to transform our agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable, for the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life - leaving no one behind.

With courage and effective collaboration, we can ensure a better future for people and the planet.

Thank you.