Dubai, UAE, 4 December 2023 - Today, at COP28 in Dubai, more than 25 leading agriculture and food players join forces to collectively scale regenerative agriculture through the COP 28 Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes to help secure the future of sustainable food systems and enhance farmers’ livelihoods. This initiative is led by the COP28 Presidency, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and supported by the UN Climate Change High Level Champions and brings together organizations across the value chain to translate commitments into tangible and inclusive action by 2030.
Together these players will work on an action package that will increase transparency through the creation of a data-platform, aggregating projects in different parts of the world. Through the data, the initiative will accelerate efforts to transition large-scale landscapes to regenerative agriculture by connecting farmers, value chain players, financiers and the public sector. These landscape models and best practices will be then amplified to encourage other organizations to embrace regenerative practices at scale.
As part of the action package, participants in the initiative are partnering with 3,6 million farmers and working on transitioning 160 million hectares to regenerative agriculture, equivalent to 3 times the landmass of France. Of this land, transition has been initially completed on approximately 50 million hectares and impact will be reported and monitored across key dimensions – soil health, GHG emissions, biodiversity, water and farmer livelihoods - to ensure sustainability and inclusiveness of the projects. So far, participants have invested USD $2 billion into regenerative projects, with an additional USD $2.2 billion committed, to be complemented by additional co-financing support. Participants will report impacts on these projects leveraging established and science-based frameworks, tools and assessments to ensure accountability.
This action package has the potential to directly support the implementation of national climate commitments and efforts, including those contained in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and in the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action, recently endorsed by Heads of State and Government of 100+ countries.
The COP28 Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes is a unique opportunity to demonstrate how food systems can be part of the solution to the climate and nature crisis, while creating value for all stakeholders – from businesses, to farmers, to financiers and local governments. The initiative invites other organizations to join this collective effort and contribute to scaling regenerative agriculture around the world.
The COP28 Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes aims to work together in the lead up to COP30 and jointly accelerate the transition towards future-proofed food and agriculture systems.
For more information about this initiative, please reach out to Martina Asquini Associate, Food and Agriculture, WBCSD asquini@wbcsd.org
