04 November 2024, Asia: CABI has shared its expertise at a pre-COP29 workshop aimed at helping countries enhance their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) implementation processes through joint actions and collaboration with countries in Asia and Pacific region.
Srijita Dasgupta, CABI’s Climate Change Expert, Asia, attended the workshop in Bangkok which also sought to better understand monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems for the agriculture sector under the Paris Agreement.
The workshop was held alongside preparations for COP29 in Azerbaijan which will take place from 11 to 22 November 2024.
The agriculture sector is responsible for up to one third of the global emissions. Over the years, this sector has emerged as a key priority in the United Nations negotiation processes attributing largely to its untapped potential to help countries embark on a low emission and resilient agrifood system.
Constrained by lack of accurate data and information
While opportunities exist, countries are still largely constrained by lack of accurate data and information, technical capacities and common methodologies to streamline the reporting mechanisms.
The workshop entitled ‘Climate Transparency in Agrifood System: Understanding MRVs and COP29 preparation’ was hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Japan and the ASEAN Climate Resilience Network (ASEAN-CRN) and through partnership with CABI and other development organizations.
It brought together climate policy experts and MRV specialists from the region including ASEAN and Pacific countries, and Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan to discuss some of these pertinent challenges together with opportunities to synthesize regional and national submissions ahead of call for action from the agriculture sectors by the UNFCCC.
UNFCCC Climate Policy-making process
Ms Dasgupta gave a presentation which summarised the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) climate policy-making process. This was developed to help participants inform and refresh themselves of the process by which decisions are made that affect how the world responds to climate change.
she also led the group work and discussion sessions to better understand the opportunities for collaborations and joint actions among like-minded Asia and Pacific countries to take forward their agriculture priorities to the UNFCCC.
COP29, otherwise known as the United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, is the series of formal meetings where governments assess global efforts to advance the Paris Agreement and the Convention, also limit global warming to 1.5°C as informed by the latest science.
Bridging the data and policy nexus for effective climate action
Ms Dasgupta said, “Understanding the often complicated yet necessary UNFCCC climate policy-making process is important in our fields if we are to understand how it shapes global priorities, particular in terms of channelling climate finance to the agriculture sectors.
“CABI’s involvement across different scales and with various stakeholders is highly relevant in this context to bring together national stakeholders and grassroot actors to implement country specific climate, agriculture and development priorities.
“Our work informing national and farm-level planning by developing pest and disease risk analytics that incorporate climate data and developing management and government plans to control invasive species on a landscape scale demonstrates the importance of working collaboratively with multiple actors.
“This workshop therefore was opportune to connect with partners in the region that share our vision and commitment towards climate smart and sustainable agricultural systems.”
CABI presence at COP29
CABI will be actively participating at COP29 in multiple high level side events with partner organizations. Further information to follow.
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