Food’s Climate Funding Tops $7 Billion During COP28

(Bloomberg) -- New money pledged for the global food system’s climate fight topped $7 billion during this year’s COP28 summit. 

The financing has been promised for helping farmers curb their footprint and adapt to climate change, including through innovation and regenerative agriculture. Major pledges include $519 million funding for research consortium CGIAR and $389 million from philanthropies, according to COP organizers.

From farming to processing and consumption, food accounts for about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. The climate summit in Dubai has sought to elevate food at this year’s talks. On Sunday it held the Food, Agriculture and Water Day — the first ever dedicated entirely to food systems.

Still, the amount of climate funding going to agri-food systems is “strikingly low” and continues to diminish compared with global climate finance flows, the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization said Sunday. In two decades through 2021, support for agri-food systems totaled $183 billion. Contributions fell 12% to $19 billion in 2021 from a year earlier. 

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