Climate Innovation Mission Summit: Advancing Sustainable Development

11:59, 11/05/2023

The recently concluded Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM4C) Summit in the United States called on partners to increase and accelerate investment and support in agriculture and food innovation through climate action. These innovations will play a key role in urgently transforming agricultural systems to be sustainable and inclusive, while contributing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Harvesting cherry tomatoes at a smart and sustainable farming startup farm in the Sharjah desert (United Arab Emirates).

The AIM4C conference, co-hosted by the United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), took place from May 8 to 10 in Washington, with the participation of nearly 1,000 agricultural leaders, producers, civil society groups, scientists and researchers from around the world. This is an initiative initiated by the United States and the UAE in 2021, within the framework of the 26th Conference on Climate Change of the United Nations (COP26). After more than a year, the initiative has attracted the participation of more than 80 countries and hundreds of organizations around the world. Part of the climate challenge revolves around food and agriculture. Therefore, AIM4C is a move to promote the transformation of the food system, which is the basis for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and eliminating hunger in the world by 2030.

At this AIM4C Summit, countries agreed that agriculture and food systems are an essential part of responding to climate change. At the same time, they affirmed that agriculture and food systems are an important content of the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) to be held in the UAE in November this year.

Speaking at the conference, US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said that this is an important event showing the development of AIM4C when the world needs to accelerate the process of solving challenges of food security and climate change. Thereby, Minister T. Vilsack announced new investment sources, partners and resources to prepare for the AIM4C initiative at COP28. Regarding investment, partners have increased investment in innovation in climate-smart agriculture and food systems to more than 13 billion USD, surpassing the target of 10 billion USD set at COP27. Regarding sprint initiatives for innovation, there are 21 new initiatives worth about 1.8 billion USD in this field. Along with that is the participation of many new partners, such as: Argentina, Fiji, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Sri Lanka...

Currently, about 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from food systems, due to activities such as deforestation to clear land for agricultural cultivation; methane emissions from livestock; or energy costs from the supply chain and electricity that consumers use to store and process food... Conversely, climate change is also threatening food security worldwide .

Projects being implemented under the AIM4C initiative include developing new, “greener” fertilizers that use less fossil fuels in their production. Regenerative agriculture practices are also being used to restore soil biodiversity, thereby improving productivity and reducing the need for fertilizers. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence devices are being developed that can take data from various sources such as satellites, ground sensors, etc., helping to accurately estimate the carbon level of cultivated land, thereby supporting farmers to improve soil quality.

According to experts, investing in smart agriculture and adapting to climate change is an important step to solve global problems. AIM4C will gradually mobilize a global movement to increase food security and ensure the livelihoods of billions of people around the planet.

According to Hanoi Moi

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