The FAO roadmap has been published ahead of an official launch at COP28 today. The roadmap aims to align food systems with goals of 1.5C and zero hunger.
The roadmap is the first of its kind for food – doing a similar job to the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero by 2050 Roadmap for the energy sector.
Food systems contribute a third of global greenhouse emissions while climate change has helped push an additional 122 million people into hunger since 2019.
Ruth Davis, Fellow at the European Climate Foundation and Senior Associate at Smith School of Enterprise and Environment in Oxford said: “The world desperately needs a roadmap which points us to a fairer, more resilient and sustainable future for food systems. The FAO has made a useful start but it doesn’t take us to the destination we need.
“The roadmap’s milestones mean that companies and governments now have no excuse for ignoring food in their climate plans. But there are vital missing elements, including a much stronger focus on nature, which the FAO’s scientists acknowledge is crucial to ensuring food security.
“Goals and targets for protecting and restoring nature, agreed by 188 governments last year in a historic global deal, must guide the next iteration of the FAO roadmap – or we all risk being on the road to nowhere.”
Emile Frison, International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems said: “The FAO should be applauded for this first step in laying out a plan to eliminate extreme hunger and the third of greenhouse gas emissions from food systems, and particularly for its emphasis on a just transition – it is not easy.
“This current draft puts a huge emphasis on incremental changes to the current industrial food system – but this is a flawed system that is wrecking nature, polluting the environment, and starving millions of people. These efficiency-first proposals are unlikely to be enough to get us off the high pollution, high fossil fuel, high hunger track we’re on.
“The next rounds of this process will need to go much further in proposing a real transformation of the status quo, by putting much more emphasis on diversification, shorter supply chains and agroecology, and on tackling the massive power inequalities imposed by a handful of companies that define what we grow and eat.”
Nusa Urbancic, CEO, of Changing Markets Foundation added: “This roadmap presents a toolkit of options for what can be done to improve nutrition while reducing the climate impact of our food system.
It talks about healthy diets but stops short of recommending a reduction in meat and dairy consumption in rich countries and parts of emerging economies as one of the best ways to reduce emissions and land use.
It then tries to square the circle by relying on unproven techno-fixes to reduce the environmental impacts of livestock production – including measures for cutting methane which are not yet commercially available – alongside increased intensification which could expose humanity to greater pandemic risks. This feels like a big gamble.”
Sophia Murphy, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy said: “FAO’s Roadmap offers a welcome focus on the right to food in the cacophony of food interests that have descended on COP. The report mentions a host of critical issues, including farm income, farm worker rights, women’s empowerment, social protection, and the need for adequate, balanced, diversified and moderate diets.
“Disappointingly, the report neglects to call on big agricultural companies to make real emissions reductions, especially in rich countries where cutting methane and nitrous oxide emissions from industrial animal operations is a low-hanging fruit with huge collateral benefits for biodiversity, rural economies and healthy diets. Some of the roadmap’s recommendations on energy — in particular, on CCS, biofuels and biogas — threaten to undermine the very goals of the report.
“We look forward to the next phase of the Roadmap, which we hope will include greater opportunities for input from civil society in different regions of the world.”
ANALYSIS
This global roadmap is the first of 3 volumes – a regional roadmap and costs will be published at COP29 and a national road map with country action plans at COP30.
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The roadmap sets out targets and timelines for 10 domains where the FAO says immediate action is imperative such as livestock, soil and water, and food loss and waste. Companies and governments now have no excuse for ignoring food in their climate plans
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The roadmap is weak even though the FAO’s scientists acknowledge it’s key to food security. Including the goals and targets agreed by 188 governments in a global deal on biodiversity last year will be key for the next edition.
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There is a strong focus on healthy diets (with goals on nutrition – not just calories) and emissions reductions but the roadmap provides little detail on how the 120 actions outlined in the roadmap will contribute to these goals.
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There is a worrying emphasis on bioenergy, drawn from the IEA roadmap analysis and recommendations, that fails to address the science about the squeeze on productive land, food production and land degradation.
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The need to shift diets to reduce emissions from meat and dairy is acknowledged. However, an explicit call for higher-income countries to reduce the consumption of animal-sourced foods is only referenced on the website – not in the report itself. Actions to reduce emissions from livestock centres on increasing production efficiencies and tech fixes – some of which are unlikely to be commercially available for some years.
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The need for a just transition is rightfully at the forefront with recognition of the crucial role and vulnerabilities experienced by women and Indigenous Peoples. But no mention of small-scale family farmers who produce a third of the world’s food.
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There is nothing to directly address the power inequalities in a food system dominated by a handful of companies who define what we grow and eat. For example, it includes references to shifting agricultural subsidies and reducing chemical inputs but no suggestion of regulating the major agr-food companies who profit from the status quo.
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Engagement with those who need to turn the roadmap into a reality has been poor. The FAO needs to bring them in before it drafts the next edition – especially small-scale family farmers, women and Indigenous Peoples.
