Economy Middle East speaks to Zitouni Ould-Dada, deputy director at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) about the contributions FAO has made at COP28 to address the effect of climate change on global food security.
The world has made progress on climate change through the connection between COP27 and COP28. This drives the food and agriculture agenda forward.
Economy Middle East: How is FAO contributing within the discussions and conversations here at COP28 to address the intersection of climate change and food security, especially when it comes to vulnerable regions?
Zitouni Ould-Dada: The FAO has been well engaged in this agenda. We have been working with countries and presidencies to raise the profile of food and agriculture and bring it to the international arena. So, we’ve been working with the Egyptian presidency last year to make sure that we raise the profile of food and agriculture.
As a result, we launched four initiatives on food, nutrition, water, food loss, and waste. So it’s encouraging to see that dynamic and we built on that. Now, we’ve been working with UAE to do even more, particularly in securing political will and political commitments from countries to recognize that we do have a problem with the agricultural sector.
We need to change things. We can’t continue producing and consuming food in the same way because we use so many natural resources including water and energy. This sector contributes to about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. So, we do have a problem. Currently, we reached a stage where we’re really happy that we secured this global recognition going forward.
The other thing we’ve been doing is we’ve been supporting the negotiators on agriculture. We’ve been inviting them to our offices in Rome, giving them space, and providing them with time to talk amongst each other, to plan and prepare before COP. In addition, we have been inviting women, particularly women farmers, to come to COP and hear for themselves what is being discussed. More importantly, we aim to bring the voice from the field, from reality, to this process here. This way, people understand what this farming means to vulnerable communities such as smallholder farmers. It highlights how they’re affected by climate change and what they expect in terms of help and support from this international gathering that is here to tackle climate change.
Therefore, FAO has been well engaged in all these processes. We’re very happy now that we reached this stage where we have this big visibility and we can build on it going forward.
Economy Middle East: It has been a few days of meetings and world leaders being here. We’ve heard about a few declarations. What do those declarations mean? Regarding the engagement at COP28 for the food security sector, what has been agreed in the first couple of days in the cockpit was remarkable. How do you see it? How does FAO see that?
Zitouni Ould-Dada: Two new positive developments happened that are really encouraging.
The first one was on the first day and it was for the loss and damage fund. We saw pledges from the UAE, Germany, the UK, the U. S., and others that put money into this fund. So, it’s encouraging to see that because we’ve been waiting for that commitment to put resources into the fund so that hopefully it will reach the agricultural sector.
It will reach farmers who need the help, particularly smallholder farmers who don’t have the capacity and don’t have the means to tackle climate change. This is particularly important for smallholder farmers because out of the global climate finance, only 0.3 percent goes to smallholder farmers. So it’s so small that is not going to make a difference.
So we’re very pleased that there are these commitments for financial support. Now, those are pledges. We hope to see them happening in reality and leading to support on the ground so that smallholder farmers and vulnerable communities in rural areas can benefit from them. This is the first very encouraging development.
The second one was a day later. We saw world leaders signing a declaration, 134 countries, that recognize the importance of transforming agri-food systems. They recognized the importance of including food and agriculture as part of the nationally determined contribution. These are the national commitments from governments and also national adaptation plans.
Economy Middle East: There are varying changes in commitments this year. You’ve been in so many COPs and we’ve been interviewing you throughout the years. What is new for you in this COP? Do you see a new commitment? Do you see a change in the will of world leaders and parties coming together when it comes to the question of food security and agriculture?
Zitouni Ould-Dada: Totally. This is a moment that we’ve been waiting for. This recognition has been taking many years and agriculture has been neglected in a sense.
We had the Koronivia joint work on agriculture that FAO has been supporting for years. Now, we have a Sharm el-Sheikh implementation program. It’s very encouraging to see world leaders signing into something, that’s so important to everyone. Because food affects everyone.
Thus, it’s important that we’re aware of the fact that climate change is threatening our global food security. This is what scientists from all around the world keep telling us in the intergovernmental panel on climate change. All scientists say that climate change is going to get worse and global food security is going to be affected.
We’ve seen now, in the summer, the succession of droughts, floods, and hurricanes in many parts of the world. All these affect global food security. By the way, it’s not only climate change. At FAO, we published a report this year, like every year, that talks about the state of food security and nutrition in the world. There are three drivers that increase hunger in the world. Currently, there are around 780 million people who go hungry every day. Why? Because of three main reasons: climate change, conflicts, particularly the war in Ukraine, and COVID-19.
In fact, since 2019, since COVID-19 started, 122 million people have been pushed into hunger. Hence, it’s not just climate change. Climate change is making things worse and It is going to continue doing that because we’re not fast enough in addressing climate change. But, there are other factors that are coming in, to add to that and make hunger even worse in the world.
Economy Middle East: At the end of this COP, what you are expecting? Do you want to hand over to COP29?
Zitouni Ould-Dada: It has been very good to see the momentum taken from COP27 to COP28. It was very good to see the connection between the two in driving the food and agriculture agenda. What we want to see happen is that connection between COPs at least in the next two years. I’m not talking about the long term. But we need to see some difference happening by next year and by COP30 in Brazil. We need to see these pledges in the loss and damage fund translated into help on the ground. We need to see farmers feeling that they are being supported to cope with climate change and the loss and damage caused by this climate crisis.
Moreover, we need to see this political commitment continuing to support this change we want to see. We need to continue recognizing the fact that food and agriculture have to be an integral part of the solution to the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis, and the global food security crisis because of the hunger that we have around the world.
So, this is an exciting time because suddenly we do have this recognition to build on and we can make changes. We can make things happen and we can improve people’s lives. We have to, particularly for people in rural areas and vulnerable communities in general, wherever they are. This is what we would like to see happening.
Read: COP28: Sadhguru, founder of Save Soil calls for global action to save our soil
Economy Middle East: What is the mission of the presidency of the UAE and COP28 to hand over to the upcoming COP from your perspective?
Zitouni Ould-Dada: The UAE has already achieved a lot in food and agriculture. It’s in a very good position to keep championing this agenda and working with the next presidency to take it even more forward.
We know that COP30 in Brazil, is going to be even more important because agriculture in Brazil is very important. We expect them to champion this. There are issues to do with deforestation as well. So, there are so many other issues important to global food security. But the COP itself is a process obviously for international negotiations.
Additionally, there needs to be a lot happening and a lot is happening outside COP as well. Private companies, civil society, and philanthropies are going to take this forward as well and make things happen. That’s what we would like to see. We cannot wait until the next COP. We need to make things happen now and build on them. So, by the next COP, we need to say that we did and achieved, building on what was achieved at COP28 and building on that. Why? Because we are running out of time. We are not reducing emissions at the depth that we need to and we are not building resilience. We are not resilient at all.
Unfortunately, it’s a big problem. So we need to see all these negotiation outcomes and commitments translated into something meaningful in the real world.
About Zitouni Ould-Dada
Ould-Dada is currently deputy director of the Climate and Environment Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome. Before joining FAO, he worked as head of the technology unit at UNEP in Paris for 5 years.
His 22 years of international work experience covers a wide range of fields including environmental policy; climate change; energy policy; technology and innovation; agriculture and food security; radiation protection; and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Ould-Dada is renowned internationally for his strong diplomatic and communication skills and ability to build collaborative partnerships.
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