The U.S. agricultural industry had a successful sojourn in Dubai, with dozens of industry and government officials bringing the message that farmers can address climate change using a “climate-smart” approach that does not sacrifice production.

The occasion was the 28th Conferences of the Parties, or COP28, a two-week meeting whose overall success will be debated in the days and weeks — and maybe even years — to come, depending on the final agreement reached by the nations in attendance.

Many U.S. agriculturalists who attended the gathering pronounced themselves pleased with the progress made.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, who was at the conference, pointed to a declaration signed by more than 150 countries that he said “lays out a series of commitments and directions that I think are very, very consistent” with the “climate-smart” agriculture that USDA is promoting.

“There was no need for us to be defensive, but in fact, we could articulate proactive leadership in the climate space,” Vilsack told reporters Sunday.

Ernie Shea, president of the farmer-led Solutions from the Land, echoed Vilsack’s comments. 

“I think he was signaling the same thing that we're saying,” said Shea, who has been to multiple COPs and was in Dubai for about a week.

“The narrative is changing within the climate convention about agriculture,” Shea said. “It had been all about ‘big bad ag is the problem.’ And we have been demonstrating and advancing the message that agriculture is actually the solution.”

Ernie_Shea.jpgErnie Shea, Solutions from the Land

If nations want to prevent the globe from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, “they cannot unless agriculture is enabled to participate in a way that just doesn't meet a climate outcome, but in a way that delivers multiple solutions to [United Nations Sustainable Development Goals],” Shea said.

“We've been driving this message for five years, sometimes feeling like we were just shouting into the wind,” Shea said. Now, however, “there is a growing awareness that agriculture is an untapped solution pathway.”

Solutions from the Land preaches “sustainable” agriculture. Among its “guiding principles” is the belief that “since crops, livestock and production forest dominate the world’s land area, agricultural systems must be advanced that increase both production and production efficiency per unit of land and water; that meet the food and nutrition needs of the future; and that also greatly enhance ecosystem health by regenerating soils, watershed and habitat for biodiversity at scale, while serving as a critical sink for greenhouse gases.”

Vilsack said the COP's ag and food declaration “outlines the steps that need to be taken in order to ensure that we can produce the food necessary to meet the nutritional needs of the world — now and in the future — in light of a changing climate and the challenges that it presents.”

“We stress that any path to fully achieving the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement must include agriculture and food systems,” the declaration says. “We affirm that agriculture and food systems must urgently adapt and transform in order to respond to the imperatives of climate change.”

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But the declaration also gives the signatory countries some leeway, saying each should work toward the various goals in the statement “according to our own national circumstances.”

As at all COPs, companies and government and nongovernmental organizations took the opportunity to release a raft of goals and reports.

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Included among them was a “road map” from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to help guide the agrifood industry toward lower greenhouse gas emissions.

On the subject of livestock systems, which contribute 12% of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions worldwide, the road map called for prioritizing improvements in “efficiency of production, particularly among low-productivity producers. The focus should aim at reducing resource usage (land, water and energy) per unit of consumable products by implementing an array of improved livestock management practices.”

“This increase in productivity should be achieved through carefully planned intensification methods that steer clear of adverse consequences, like the potential negative effects stemming from the concentrated housing of animals coupled with excessive antibiotic use, which heightens the risk of antimicrobial resistance,” the report says. 

Eric Mittenthal, chief strategy officer at the North American Meat Institute, called the road map a “landmark report” and said “strong evidence-based participation from the [livestock] sector” at the COP had helped demonstrate that “sustainable production of animal-source foods is at the heart of climate and food security solutions.”

Mittenthal mentioned another report contributing to that overall conclusion: an FAO report on reducing emissions from the livestock sector.

“Interventions include improvements in animal health and welfare, the reduction of food loss and waste throughout the production chain, enhancements in breeding practices, elevated feed quality, and targeted measures to mitigate GHG emissions, such as rumen manipulation and the use of feed additives,” that report says.

“If implemented collectively, these improvements have the potential to reduce emissions from the livestock sector significantly, while still meeting the additional 20 percent animal protein demand projected by 2050,” the report says.

Groups advocating for a move toward plant-based diets criticized the FAO road map, saying diets must change in order to make progress on climate change progress. In addition, “The road map does not adequately emphasize the importance of reducing the overall number of animals in the food system, a crucial need for environmental and health sustainability,” the groups said. “While it touches on health-related aspects like antimicrobial resistance, a comprehensive exploration of the health impacts of industrial animal agriculture, including its role in AMR and zoonoses, is regrettably lacking.”

Shea criticized the road map for being developed without adequate farmer input. The document “had little or no input from farmers that we can tell — certainly in the Global North. … It was developed in a vacuum, largely.”

Other notable developments from COP28:

But it was the early lack of a consensus for phasing out fossil fuels that had former Vice President Al Gore declaring “COP28 is now on the verge of complete failure.”

“The world desperately needs to phase out fossil fuels as quickly as possible, but this obsequious draft reads as if OPEC dictated it word for word. It is even worse than many had feared,” Gore said in a statement. 

The influence of the oil industry was no secret at the meeting, which was led by Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the minister of industry and advanced technology of the United Arab Emirates and head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. 

However, Al Jaber ultimately helped broker a compromise that calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner” that would still enable countries to find their own pathways to net zero. 

After discussions that took place throughout Tuesday night, almost 200 governments hailed the first U.N. climate agreement that called for countries to cut back on all fossil fuels and triple the deployment of renewable energy with the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

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