The 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) was held from November 6th to November 18th, 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. COP27 brought together leaders from governments, civil society, and the private sector to discuss and find solutions to the pressing issues of climate change. I was particularly interested in the agriculture and food systems component of this issue. In this article, I will share my experience of participating in COP27 and what we did in terms of advocacy through FAYI and IAAS.
As a co-head of the Food and Agriculture Youth Institute (FAYI) and a member of the IAAS Delegation, I was privileged to be part of this important meeting!
Before the event, I was involved in the organization of a preparatory training program in food and agriculture policy for fellow youth attendees, this was a collaboration between FAYI and YPARD. This program aimed to equip us with the necessary knowledge and skills to engage in discussions and negotiations at COP27. I myself, facilitated one session on effective policy making in the food and agriculture sector where participants drafted a call to action on food waste, of which the final version will be shared soon!
During the conference, I spoke at three side events, where I had the opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas on different topics related to food/agriculture and youth activism and involvement in the global policy space. The first event was at the Food Systems Pavilion, where I participated in a discussion on “Farmers and Innovators placed in the center: discussing food systems of tomorrow”. The second event was at the Food4Climate Pavilion, where I spoke about “Dependence on food imports and food security issues in the MENA region”. The third event was at the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Pavilion, where I discussed “Accelerating youth in a climate-smart world”.
Additionally, I attended the meetings of the YOUNGO Agriculture Working Group, where we drafted our statement on Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (more info available here: https://www.fao.org/koronivia/en/). At the plenary room, we were fortunate enough to make an intervention and share the statement with the other participants. We had bilateral and multilateral meetings with several party delegations and international organizations to get support of our statement.
Networking was an integral part of COP27, and I made the most of it. I met with delegates from various countries and organizations and had the opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations. For instance, our delegation was invited to a gala dinner by EIT Food, where we had the chance to network and engage with various stakeholders in the food and agriculture sector.
One of the major outcomes of COP27 was the creation of the loss and damage fund. This fund aims to provide financial support to countries that are affected by the impacts of climate change, such as droughts, floods, and storms. But no clear frameworks are established (yet) nor details on the source of funding were mentioned. Hopefully, at SB58 and COP28, we will have a more effective decisions tackling this issue of loss and damage. About Food and Agriculture, Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture’s mandate (although the name is different now) has been extended and it remains the only UNFCCC mechanism solely focused on food and agriculture. With other fellow youth, we advocated for the importance of including the food systems perspective, and extending the mandate of KJWA. (The full decision can be found here: https://unfccc.int/documents/624317). Our statement can be found here (https://www.iaasworld.org/contentHub/66). Progress on mitigation and adaptation were less than hoped for despite the fact that most parties adopted the Glasgow pact, still the majority of those countries did not submit updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Aside from the conference activities, we also made a day trip to Cairo, where we visited the pyramids and the Egyptian Museum. It was a unique opportunity to learn more about the rich cultural heritage of Egypt!
All in all, the participation of IAAS and FAYI in this conference was such an enriching experience, with lots of learning, networking and activism. We are the future generation of leaders in the field of agriculture, and our involvement in this space is very important. Although we had to fly to get to the conference, it is in our opinion crucial to be engaged in the Climate Conference as young activists. We strongly believe that solving the climate issue will only take place by a political will of parties, but most importantly by a cross-sectorial, inter-generational and international serious and presential collaboration.
We also noticed that greenwashing was extremely present, and it was difficult to distinguish between genuine efforts to address climate change and those that were merely paying lip service to the cause. Furthermore, the lack of transparency of political representatives was a significant challenge, and it was difficult to gauge the level of commitment to the agreed outcomes. Finally, the lack of political will was a significant obstacle to the progress made at the conference, and it was clear that much more needs to be done to ensure that the commitments made at COP27 (and previous negotiations) are translated into action.
As FAYI and IAAS, we are already working with the YOUNGO agriculture working group, preparing a submission for SB58 and we hope to take our commitment even further this year.
For further questions, do not hesitate to reach out to me via email at omar.farhate@iaasworld.org or fayi@iaasworld.org
