COP28 Daily Digest: Everything You Need To Know in Food and Climate News – Day 5

Welcome to Day 5 of #COP28. In our Green Queen COP28 Daily Digest, our editorial team curates the must-reads, the must-bookmarks and the must-knows from around the interwebs to help you ‘skim the overwhelm’.

Catch up: DAY 1 – DAY 2 – DAY 3&4

Headlines You Need To Know

The COP-related news you cannot miss.

UK ANNOUNCED £1.6B CLIMATE PACKAGE AFTER NET-ZERO U-TURN: The UK already began COP28 in a bit of a mess with three of its leaders – including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – taking individual private jets. During his 11-hour stay, Sunak pledged £1.6B ($2B) to the Green Climate Fund as he faced criticism for his decision to delay a petrol ban in the country amid a wider negative climate policy narrative.

NORWAY SIGNS AGREEMENTS WORTH $47M FOR CLIMATE ADAPTATION: Norway has announced new agreements for climate adaptation worth over NOK 500M ($47M), which aligns with its goal of tripling such financing by 2026. Much of this is directed toward smallholder farms, agrobiodiversity and preventing food loss.

WTO & FAO SIGN MOU FOR FOOD, FARMING & CLIMATE ACTION: The World Trade Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to bolster cooperation and collaboration on action and solutions for food and agricultural trade and climate change.

KENYA INKS CLIMATE DEALS WORTH $4.5B: Kenya has penned agreements for seven climate projects worth a total of $4.48B, including a $1.5B green fertiliser deal and $1B geothermal project, to evolve into a “green powerhouse”.

MENA NATIONS LAUNCH $10B TO BATTLE CLIMATE CHALLENGES: Countries and institutions have unveiled the public-private Africa and Middle East SAFE Initiative, a $10B collaborative effort to battle issues around food security, climate change, and rural livelihood vulnerability.

OFFICIALS FAILS TO CONFIRM WHETHER COP28 IS SAFE FOR PROTESTERS: The UNFCCC and Dubai authorities – who are organising COP28 – aren’t clarifying whether it’s safe for climate activists to protest outside the summit. Officials have already declined permission for a few demonstrations. In fact, a protest took place in the Blue Zone just today, noting that climate justice can’t happen with occupied land (i.e. Palestine).

EX-US VEEP SAYS FOSSIL FUEL PHASEOUT ONLY SUCCESS MEASURE FOR COP28: In an interview with the Guardian, climate activist and former US vice-president Al Gore has said a phaseout of fossil fuels would be the only mark of success for COP28, a “welcome surprise”, and one of humanity’s most significant achievements.

NON-PROFITS AND FOUNDATIONS CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR CLIMATE ACTION: A group of non-profits and organisations – including Grand Challenges, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation – have launched a call for funding proposals worth $200,000 each, seeking innovative research and pilot processes for climate change adaptation, mitigation and reversal in vulnerable regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia and Brazil.

GATES FOUNDATION PLEDGES FUNDS FOR FOOD & HEALTH REFORMS: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has also partnered with the UAE to support the investment needed to reach 500 million farmers and reduce emissions by 1 gigaton per year. Plus, the organisation is part of a $777M pledge to eradicate neglected tropical diseases in the face of climate change, potentially benefitting 1.6 billion people.

UAE UNVEILS FOOD INNOVATION HUB FOR FARM-TO-FORK SYSTEM: The UAE has unveiled a Food Innovation Hub to tackle climate challenges like food safety and security. It’s the sixth hub launched by the World Economic Forum globally to convene stakeholders under the farm-to-fork concept for a sustainable food supply chain.

RAINFOREST COUNTRIES BACK COMMUNITY-LED VOLUNTARY CARBON PROJECTS: Ministers and Indigenous leaders from tropical forest nations spoke at the launch of Equitable Earth, a voluntary carbon market standard to drive climate finance to Indigenous and traditional communities, with the governments of Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reiterated commitments to end deforestation.

COUNTRIES COMMITS $900M FOR SMALLHOLDER FARMS IN POORER NATIONS: Ag research network CGIAR has secured $890M of investment to support smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income nations, cut farming emissions, and boost access to nutritious, healthy foods. The Netherlands ($136M) and the UK ($132M) pledged the highest number.

LEADING CARBON CREDITING STANDARDS UNITE TO ADVANCE SECTOR: Some of the largest carbon crediting organizations, including Verra, the Global Carbon Council and Gold Standard, have unveiled a partnership to amplify the effectiveness of their standards and carbon markets and pledging, among other things, to improve transparency around the use of carbon credits- welcome news after a slew of recent investigations left many actors mired in controversy.

Key #COP28 Reports

The food and climate reports you need to know about today.

• Scientists lay out a policy wishlist to combat climate change: The UNFCC and climate organisations have unveiled the latest edition of the annual 10 New Insights in Climate Science report, which outlines 10 trends to be examined or introduced for mitigation. These include a fossil fuel phaseout, carbon dioxide removal, mountain glacier loss, and food systems reformation.
• UN Women calls for feminist climate justice approach: Today is Gender Day at COP28, and to mark the occasion, UN Women has released its Feminist Climate Justice: A Framework for Action report to highlight how millions of women are pushed into poverty due to climate change, with a four-pillar approach for better climate justice.

Awesome Resources From Media Friends

A curation of our favourite reads of the day – excellent guides, explainers and op-eds from around the web.

Valorising greenwashing: Should one of the UK’s largest fossil fuel investors be hosting events at COP28 about decarbonising fashion and apparel? Environmental fashion activist and co-founder of Eco-Age Livia Firth argues no, in an op-ed for True Cost Alliance.

The science behind Science-Based Targets: We’ve heard a lot about the Science Based Targets Initiative (or SBTi) – but how does it work? Changing Markets Foundation CEO Nusa Urbancic explains it all for ImpactAlpha.

Better benchmarks for carbon markets: An op-ed by the European Commission president, the IMF managing director and the WTO director-general for the Financial Times argues that “business-as-usual is not delivering the needed cuts to greenhouse gas emissions” and global carbon markets need better benchmarks.

Lighter Green Fun

Funny stuff, weird stuff, random stuff related to COP you may enjoy.

A clim-shit summit: In an op-ed for Climate and Capital Media, Natural Capitalist Solutions NGO founder Hunter Lovins labelled the COP@28 conference “a shit show”, blasting the summit president’s fossil-fuels-aren’t-bad-for-the-planet BS; Lovins is a regenerative-agriculture-advocating meat rancher, so make of that what you will.

Not another climate-friendly beef: Three companies have partnered to bring the world its latest ‘climate-smart beef’, with a pilot ranch using carbon insets and blockchain tech to produce beef that’s supposedly better for the planet. Alas, we’ve debunked this before.

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