COP28: Agriculture as a solution to climate challenges

The challenge of resuming economic growth while promoting food and energy security sets major challenges in fostering a more efficient and less greenhouse gas-emitting energy mix. This context imposes weighty commitments on all parties, but it also presents opportunities for countries like Brazil, a giant in terms of biodiversity and sustainability. This is particular in terms of Brazilian agriculture and livestock activities, which are committed to the strictest environmental legislation in the world and to a sustainable and robust energy transition, combined with the most ambitious low-carbon tropical agriculture policy. This set of climate solutions allows us a high degree of resilience that is also an example to the world.

The acknowledgment of agriculture and livestock as the foundation of adaptation and mitigation efforts sees in Brazil a model of efficiency. It is a crucial element of achieving the goals set out in the Climate Agreement and has great potential to result in a positive balance of emissions, not only to ensure its own development but also for global actions of co-benefits provided by Brazilian agribusiness.

As part of this effort, Brazil must impose itself as an essential player in the Climate Agreement, based on the significance of the agricultural sector’s role in the duties and benefits that result from this commitment. To this end, we have gathered the Agro Positioning for the COP28 [Posicionamento do Agro para a COP28], which was delivered to negotiators and to Brazilian society, with relevant information and data to guide national proposals, advising and supporting the decision-making bodies in their interactions with other parties to the Climate Agreement, as well as seeking a positive result for economic development linked to efficient climate solutions.

It is essential to reiterate the support of the agricultural sector in fighting illegal deforestation and in strengthening regional development policies, through the financing mechanisms provided for in the Convention.  Seeking transparency in qualifying the factors of alternative land use is important to ensure the transparency and security needed to acknowledge the actions undertaken and the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

The 28th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) marks a critical point in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, especially as it will be the moment to consolidate the first global assessment of the parties’ efforts to limit the temperature increase to a maximum of 1.5o C, a process known as Global Stocktake.

One must consider that there is a clear need to convert climate finance pledges into effective resources that contribute to climate action by developing countries in all their sectors, following their NDCs. The fact that COP28 is being held in Dubai highlights the role that the energy transition must play in the Paris Agreement’s actions, to lay the foundations for countries to invest in renewable sources while reducing their dependence on fossil fuel energy sources.

The fragility of the scope of global efforts and the lack of means to deepen the implementation of the NDCs will be striking, which brings to COP28 the challenge of adopting measures that will effectively allow progress to be made in the undertaking of the parties’ climate actions, in line with the challenges and needs expressed in the NDCs.

In this sense, besides the decision on the Global Stocktake, it is worth highlighting the following proposals within the agricultural sector’s contributions to achieving the NDCs:

• Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Action Group

Which should recognize the impacts that global warming may have on agriculture and on achieving global food security. This emphasizes always addressing agriculture based on a mitigation, adaptation, and co-benefits approach, without stressing emission reductions over adaptation.

• Carbon market

Promote bilateral or multilateral agreements between countries related to the trade of emission reductions or elimination, known as Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs), and how agricultural and land-use activities that potentially contribute to achieving climate targets are eligible to enter the carbon market.

• New quantified global funding target

Based on the principle of common but different responsibilities, developed countries must provide resources to strengthen climate action in developing ones. The amount of US$ 100 billion pledged in 2009 has not been made available, weakening implementation efforts and increasing the cost of achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals. A new qualified target must be set to exponentially increase these investments to face the climate emergency.

• Adaptation mechanisms

In this issue, it is worth highlighting agriculture and the impacts that global warming could have on food production, renewable sources of energy, and biomass. It will be crucial to clearly mention agriculture as a sector that must be included in national adaptation plans and policies. Moreover, it is essential to strengthen climate funding as a means of providing opportunities for the adaptation of production systems.

• Transparency

Strengthening the capacity to prepare detailed inventories that allow capturing consistent data on emission reductions and carbon removal in tropical agriculture is a challenge intrinsic to potentially improving carbon balances in Brazilian agribusiness.

• Agriculture and food security

As there is no agreed approach on how to address food systems, it is necessary to avoid labeling agriculture, livestock, and land use as the main sectors to be addressed, disregarding the energy, industrial, and waste emissions linked to food systems. As a leading country in agricultural production with a low-carbon and resilient agricultural strategy, Brazil is naturally engaged in any discussion about food systems and how to promote their transition.

• Global Methane Pledge

Clarify how Brazil will propose its roadmap in the Pledge’s context, which must include methane emissions from fossil fuel and waste production, as well as livestock.

Finally, it is crucial to reiterate our commitment to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, ensuring the productive efficiency of agribusiness based on innovation, science, technology, environmental preservation, and sustainability, as well as seeking recognition for the performed actions and incentive measures compatible with the greatness of Brazilian agribusiness. To this end, we detail the sector’s proposals to be advocated during the negotiations under the following positioning.

28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28-UNFCCC)

Position Paper of the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA)

The Brazilian agricultural sector, through the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (CNA), representing more than 5 million rural producers, presents the Brazilian negotiators with its Position Paper to be considered during COP28, reflecting the agricultural sector’s views of the Climate Agreement’s commitments for the coming decades.

CNA has actively taken part in talks and debates on issues related to climate change about the implementation of the NDCs presented by Brazil within the framework of the Climate Conference, the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in December 2015 in France, known as the “PARIS AGREEMENT”.

Agriculture and livestock essential parts of the climate actions that make up the NDCs in the Paris Agreement. At the UNFCCC, the debate on agriculture and livestock and their role in tackling climate change has matured considerably, considering the urgent need to support countries in adapting agricultural systems to climate change’s effects.

To advance in the negotiations on agriculture and climate change, based on the Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work on the Implementation of Climate Action on Agriculture and Food Security adopted at COP27, the intrinsic relationship that the impacts of climate change may have on agriculture and the achievement of global food security was identified, showing the importance of addressing agriculture based on the approach of mitigation, adaptation, and co-benefits. The “climate action on agriculture and food security” is actually part of 141 NDCs submitted by September 2022, highlighting the significance that the Parties attach to the agriculture issue.

For CNA, the possibility of achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals and, more broadly, making an effective contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, is intrinsically linked to promoting agriculture and livestock based on continuous innovation, science and technology, preservation and sustainability, sustainable development policies and economic incentives, as well as acknowledging the implemented actions.

If, on the one hand, low-carbon farming has been part of Brazilian agricultural policies since 2011 – when the UNFCCC negotiations were timidly addressing farming –, on the other hand, forestry legislation has ensured a huge environmental asset in private areas, resulting in 33% of the country’s territory being preserved by the very farming sector. The technologies that allow reducing emissions and encourage the adaptation of production systems have been adopted in the countryside for more than three decades and have been used as a benchmark for developing an ambitious climate action policy aimed at agriculture and food security. In the forestry domain, for at least 48 years rural landowners must preserve a significant portion of their land, complying with the Forest Code, a strict law that aims to promote production combined with preservation.

This enormous environmental and climate capital has allowed the development of this potential to respond to the challenge of producing more, better, and with lesser environmental and climate impact. The possibility of reducing the impacts of extreme weather events, accruing innovation for small, medium, and large producers, and continuously improving production by combining adaptation and mitigation will be crucial for achieving the agricultural sector’s contributions to the NDCs, inherent to the development of Brazilian agriculture. Finally, this is an opportunity for sustainable development, investments in technologies and innovation, access to carbon markets, and financing and increasing access to international markets.

CNA has been attending UNFCCC meetings for more than ten years and understands the significance of strengthening the implementation of the Paris Agreement, following the multilateral climate agenda’s guiding principles, including common but distinguished responsibilities. In this sense, Brazilian farmers would like to draw attention to the following messages and recommendations.

• Key topics for negotiation at COP28

Several formal issues will be dealt with during COP28 to achieve decisions that will enable progress to be made with the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement’s implementation. CNA highlights the following subjects that interest directly rural producers and which are crucial to driving climate action.

1.1 Global Stocktake (GST) and ambition of Parties towards the 1.5o C goal

The Global Stocktake aims to assess the progress of climate action globally level and determine general gaps in fulfilling the Paris Agreement, as well as opportunities to overcome them. This process seeks to evaluate collective progress on the several issues that make up the agenda, such as mitigation, adaptation, financing, loss and damage, technology transfer, and capacity building.

At COP28, one hopes to conclude the analysis of this first stocktaking, discuss its results, and consider new actions to be taken. The global stocktaking’s outcome should inform Parties on updating and improving their actions in a nationally determined manner, as well as on enhancing international cooperation for climate action.

The report Technical Dialogue of the First Global Stocktake, which summarizes and presents the conclusions of the technical dialogues held as a foundation for the global review process, points out several issues that must be addressed jointly to catalyze effective action, including the Global Goal for Adaptation and food systems – both of which are particularly relevant to the agricultural sector and will be reflected in the Global Stocktake’s outcome.

Based on the GST’s results, it will be essential to extend and ease access to climate finance to support the achievement of the goals set in its NDCs, especially concerning increasing ambition.

The GST decision adopted in Dubai should contribute to the NDCs’ review and updating throughout 2024 and early 2025 when the Parties are expected to propose more ambitious targets. Thus, given that the first decision of the Global Stocktake will be a benchmark for the ongoing process of assessing joint efforts, CNA believes that the decision should consider the following elements:

• Acknowledge that the climate actions adopted by countries are based on the development of NDCs, which in turn are based on the necessary and relevant actions to make tackling global warming possible. Thus, climate action on agriculture and food security must take into account each country’s realities, challenges, and opportunities, to foster mitigation, adaptation, and co-benefit actions in all production systems. Agriculture needs to be seen as part of the solution to the 1.5o C goal, aligned with the challenge of achieving food security, which reveals a very close relationship between SDG 2 and SDG 13 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
• Strengthen countries’ capacity to implement their climate actions. In this sense, the decision to be adopted in Dubai must consolidate the commitment to climate finance from developed countries, in line with the negotiations on the new global financing goal as one of the main sources of funding.
• Increasing the Parties’ capacity to prepare their national inventories and publications will be crucial to clearly assess the scope of climate action, under the terms of the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) and the Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs). In line with the work related to Article 13 of the Paris Agreement, the GST decision should prioritize support for developing countries to advance their capacities to prepare their inventories.
• Improving national inventories focused on agricultural activities, to capture more detailed data (tier 3) on emissions and elimination from tropical farming technologies and practices, as well as the preservation and restoration of native vegetation in private areas (land use sector) is essential to providing increasingly consistent data on the balance of emissions from Brazilian agriculture and livestock.
• Acknowledge that the impacts of global warming on agriculture pose numerous challenges that threaten global food security. It is therefore critical to strengthen low-carbon and resilient farming as a way of improving actions to support the adaptation agenda, in line with the negotiations aimed at setting a Global Goal for Adaptation and the Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work on Implementation of Climate Action on Agriculture and Food Security.
• Strengthen implementation strategies using a mechanism of the Paris Agreement – the Global Stocktake, which should be performed every five years from this first one, avoiding stipulating, privileging, or choosing which actions countries should implement.
• Consider that Brazil’s goal of zero illegal deforestation will be paramount to achieving the NDC and will contribute enormously to the preservation of native vegetation. The report Technical Dialogue of the First Global Stocktake shows that ending deforestation and environmental degradation are key actions that must be taken. Simultaneously, restoring native vegetation, including adapting to the Forest Code, will allow for building up carbon stocks and promote biodiversity preservation.
• Intensifying agriculture without expanding the used area will be essential to catalyze sustainable development benefits. Intensification through the adoption of low-carbon agriculture and livestock technologies and practices, in line with the ABC+ Plan, is more than relevant to strengthening countries’ capacity aimed at climate action on agriculture and food security. However, it is unreasonable to accept manifestations that forbid area expansion, which could deviate from national regulations and the very dynamics of agriculture and livestock activities. It is worth noting that the expansion of farming over pasture lands is gaining ground, and having a UNFCCC decision that restricts this growth could harm the proposed NDCs.
• It should be emphasized that the demand-side measures mentioned must consider the countries’ climate actions and not justify measures taken by third countries, or private and civil society actors, which interfere or create restrictions on production and international trade. The phrase “demand-side measures” in the Global Stocktake decision must respect the Parties’ NDCs and cannot substantiate measures that justify extra-territorial and unilateral climate regulation.

1.2 Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work on the Implementation of Climate Action on Agriculture and Food Security

COP27’s Decision 3/CP.27 created the Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work on the Implementation of Climate Action on Agriculture and Food Security (hereinafter referred to as the Sharm El-Sheikh Group), to advance negotiations on agriculture and climate change, taking as a reference the experience developed within the framework of the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA).

One aspect to be highlighted in the decision was the agreement on the phrase “climate action for agriculture and food security”, acknowledging the intrinsic relationship that the global warming effects may have on agriculture and the achievement of global food security. This reinforces the idea of always addressing agriculture based on a mitigation, adaptation, and co-benefits approach, without emphasizing emissions reductions over adaptation.

According to the Sharm El-Sheikh Group’s mandate as defined at COP27, the negotiations in Dubai should focus on three main aspects:

1. What the Sharm El-Sheikh online portal should look like with the Parties’ climate actions.
2. What subjects should be discussed in workshops at future Subsidiary Bodies meetings (approaches to fostering sustainable agriculture and food security; actions, practices, and technologies to develop low-carbon agriculture; financing; inclusion of fisheries on the agenda).
3. What should be the scope of the reports that the Secretariat will prepare annually with information on climate finance, technology, and the role of other UNFCCC groups and the Paris Agreement.

To meet the goals of Decision 3/CP.27, and given the expertise gathered by the Koronivia Joint Work between 2018 and 2021, CNA understands the Sharm El-Sheikh Group’s decision should prioritize the following elements:

• Create and make useful the online portal with climate action projects and policies on agriculture and food security actions. The COP28 decision should state that the portal should:
  • be created in the first semester of 2024 and presented at the Subsidiary Body meeting in June 2024;
  • invite Parties to present their agriculture and food security actions to assess the set of actions presented since COP24 and connect them to funding via the Green Climate Fund.
• The Secretariat should prepare synthesis reports including accurate information on climate finance, technology, and the role of other UNFCCC groups and the Paris Agreement in the agenda of agriculture climate action agenda.
• Connecting Parties’ projects to climate finance from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Adaptation Fund, and other potential financial mechanisms; to this end, workshops should be held in the context of the Sharm El-Sheikh Group with the GCF and the Adaptation Fund, which should present projects, challenges, and constraints to financing climate action in agriculture and food security.
• Promote cooperation to strengthen innovation aimed at climate action in agriculture and food security, which could include the work of the Climate Technology Center and Network (CTCN).
• Specify a scope of work fully including the Parties’ approaches to foster climate action in agriculture and food security, without prescribing specific production systems or practices to the detriment of others.

It is also worth pointing out that the Sharm el-Sheikh Group should not be used as a platform for discussing the transition of food systems, a subject that is gaining more and more momentum and includes to a certain extent agricultural production. Food systems encompass emissions and challenges intrinsic to the energy, industry, waste treatment, and land use sectors, and therefore cannot be addressed as a sectoral issue, especially in the agriculture group.

1.3 Carbon Market: Cooperative approaches between countries according to Article 6.2

Cooperative approaches allow countries to set bilateral or multilateral agreements for trading emission reductions or removals, known as Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs).

In these cooperative approaches, Parties that achieve more than the mitigation ambition recognized in their NDC during a given period can sell their excess to other Parties provided that this also promotes sustainable development, environmental integrity, and transparency, and does not result in double counting. However, countries will need to carry out suitable adjustments to their NDC considering the volume of transacted ITMOs.

Negotiations at COP28 should focus on details of operating the Article 6.2 mechanism, considering, for instance: i) authorization of ITMOs by the country of origin; ii) how to ensure transparency of the purchase and use of ITMOs; iii) electronic format; iv) reporting requirements of Parties; and v) other requirements.

In this sense, within the carbon market in Article 6.2, CNA would like to draw attention to the following messages and recommendations:

• • Emphasize that cooperative agreements may become a significant source of projects for the carbon market, with demand from purchaser countries fostering the development of projects in specific sectors in the countries originating the ITMOs;
  • Point out that there are countries interested in acquiring ITMOs that are taking part in cooperative agreements with countries that could create these credits.
  • Enable potential cooperative agreements with countries interested in acquiring ITMOs created by sectors such as agriculture, livestock, and energy. Such agreements may not only contribute to the country’s sustainable development but also promote the design of projects dependent on external financing.
  • Enabling renewable power generation projects through agriculture (such as biofuels, biogas, and biomethane) can become attractive sources of emissions reduction and carbon capture, which deserves the utmost attention from the Brazilian government. It is essential to negotiate memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to set cooperative agreements with key countries. Otherwise, Brazil will miss opportunities to foster the development of projects and the creation of ITMOs that may enable sustainable development in the country.
  • Point out that countries interested in acquiring ITMOs are taking part in cooperative agreements with countries that could create these credits, despite the lack of definition of several aspects of the carbon market in the Article 6.2 mechanism, which should yield many discussions and decisions over at least the next two years;
  • Promote bilateral and multilateral cooperative agreements. Although they do not accept agricultural credits, projects from the renewable energy sector based on biomass and the production of biogas or biomethane, as well as biofuels, may be accepted for project development.
  • Enable potential cooperative agreements with countries that may stimulate projects in some sectors, such as biofuels, biogas, and biomethane for instance. The Article 6.2 mechanism may become a relevant source of demand and revenue from the creation and trade of ITMOs to purchasing countries, which will take part in cooperative agreements with Brazil.
  • Promoting the integration of the national regulated market with the international regulated market, emphasizing the creation of ITMOs that can drive the design of national projects fostering sustainable development. The generation of biogas and biomethane is a clear example of potential projects leading to development, the generation of renewable energy linked to projects that yield ITMOs that can be traded with other countries.

1.4 Carbon market in private projects according to Article 6.4

The negotiations in Bonn revolved around the following subjects that make up Article 6.4:

1. Discussing whether Article 6.4 actions could include avoided emissions and preservation enhancement activities – which could include forestry credits.
2. Linking the mechanism’s national record to the international record (interoperability of records).
3. Providing a statement from the project’s host Party to the Oversight Body determining whether it authorizes emission reductions issued as A6.4ERs to be used to meet another Party’s NDC or other international mitigation goals.

As expected, the negotiations were inconclusive in practice.

• Seek approval of avoided deforestation and forest restoration credits as activities that may yield private credits. Brazil has a target of restoring 12 million hectares for multiple uses. Allowing this type of project to create private credits – with the related adjustments – may stimulate the restoration market in the country.
• Seeking the opportunity of using private credits in the market mechanism between countries. This is a contentious issue that will still cause heated discussions.
• Operating the records that countries will need to create and their connection to the international record of private credits is a crucial operational issue that will require a common solution.
• Allowing private credits to be used ostensibly to comply with another country’s NDC, thus promoting the use of this mechanism. However, it is important to set rules that prevent private credits from undermining or discouraging international transfers of mitigation results. It is worth noting that the functioning of the Oversight Body, considering the assessment of methodologies and requirements linked to methodologies and projects, spanning the whole cycle until the issuance of credits as private credits, will tend to be costly and time-consuming, which can create disincentives for the development of projects.

1.5 Financing as a lever for climate action

Negotiations on the new quantified funding target focus on the ongoing debates within the ad hoc work program.

As a basic element in CNA’s views, it is worth considering that the negotiation of a new, more ambitious financing target is an enabling condition for strengthening the implementation of climate actions in all sectors of developing countries.

The constraint and reiterated delay in achieving the US$ 100 billion annual target agreed in Copenhagen in 2009 shows unequivocally that the lack of climate finance is an obstacle to achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals. COP28 should adopt the first Global Stocktake decision and has the chance to catalyze means of financing – in an effective, prompt, and non-discriminatory way – to unlock the climate finance agenda permanently.

In this sense, CNA believes that the negotiations on the new global quantified funding target should consider:

• • Transparency/accountability agreements to monitor the progress of the negotiations of the new global quantified target.
  • How progress will be assessed in future Global Stocktake processes.
  • Opportunities for improved action and support in sectors aligned with the Parties’ NDCs.

1.6 Negotiations on the global adaptation target

The negotiation of a global adaptation target highlights the significance of considering the peculiarities and challenges of the Parties facing the impacts of global warming. Several issues must be considered here.

It is worth highlighting agriculture, livestock, and the impacts that global warming may have on food production, renewable energy, and biomass. In this regard, CNA suggests that Brazilian negotiators:

• • Include the idea that adaptation actions must acknowledge and improve the capacity of food systems to face global warming effects. In comparison with the SDGs, it is worth highlighting the relationships among SDGs 2, 1, 8, 12, 13, 15, and 17, for instance.
  • Mention agriculture as a sector that needs to be included in national adaptation plans and policies. The Dubai decision should encourage Parties to address agricultural climate actions aimed at adaptation in their plans and strategies.
  • Strengthen climate finance as a means of enabling the adaptation of production systems.
  • Strengthen the view that intensifying agriculture and livestock is an intrinsic part of the ability to promote sustainable production.
  • Acknowledge the importance of promoting technologies and production practices that enable adaptation and resilience in all production systems.

1.7 Transparency and improvement of inventories

By 2024, Parties are expected to begin presenting the so-called Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs). Strengthening the capacity to prepare detailed inventories that allow the capture of consistent data on emission reductions and carbon removal in tropical agriculture is a challenge intrinsic to the potential for improving carbon balances in Brazilian agribusiness.

At COP28, the main topic of Article 13 of the Paris Agreement will be how to support Parties, involving funding to enable the preparation of national inventories and BTRs. In line with Brazil’s stances on the need to strengthen climate finance, it seems critical to improve the Parties’ capacities in the face of the Enhanced Transparency Framework of Article 13, at the risk of jeopardizing a careful assessment of the scope of their climate actions.

On this issue, CNA suggests and recommends that Brazilian negotiators:

• Strengthen the capacity to produce data on GHG emissions and removals in Brazilian agriculture and livestock, considering improved data adapted to the reality of tropical agriculture as a required condition for achieving consistent data on the sector’s emissions balance.
• Seek to improve data, allowing them to capture the reality of low-carbon tropical agriculture, which can cause various impacts, including for international trade.
• Simplify climate finance for developing countries to evolve with their inventories and BTRs, which are key elements in providing an accurate assessment of their targets’ implementation.

2. High-level political commitments and statements, simultaneous to negotiation subjects

Aligned to the negotiation of informal commitments, outside the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, and directly related to climate action, it is important to underline two issues that the event in Dubai should address thoroughly.

2.1 The Global Methane Pledge

Brazil joined the Global Methane Pledge at COP26 in Glasgow. Bearing in mind that COP28 is expected to adopt the first Global Stocktake decision and that in 2024 Brazil will have to design its NDC implementation plan, one must consider the actions the country has taken to reduce methane emissions in all sectors, including livestock, oil, gas, and waste treatment.

Guiding aspects that need to be taken into account regarding the Global Methane Pledge and livestock production:

• Acknowledge the mitigation potential of up to 134.44 million Mg CO2eq with the capacity of an effective process of measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV).
• Acknowledge that methane emissions from livestock may be reduced by intensifying production, which can include recovering grazing land, integrating crops, livestock and forests, genetics, and intensive pasture finishing, among other practices that reduce slaughter times, increase productivity, and reduce emissions per ton of meat produced. Efficient production is one way to reduce methane in the atmosphere.
• Promoting the ABC+ Plan, with grazing land restoration as the main goal (30 million hectares by 2030), crop, livestock, and forest integration, and intensive animal finishing should be the foundation for discussing voluntary methane reduction in Brazilian cattle-raising.
• Acknowledge and stimulate innovation, the use of technologies, and technical assistance as the basis for promoting constant improvements in livestock production that strengthen the ability to produce more in less time, thus reducing emissions.
• Encourage the improvement of emission and removal metrics and inventories to consider the Global Temperature Potential (GTP) methodology as an approach that captures in greater depth GHG impacts on global warming, as well as outlining actions with greater potential for reducing emissions.
• Promote economic incentive policies in line with the development of technologies, the implementation of these technologies in the countryside, and the design of a robust and accessible MRV mechanism.

Brazil should not take on new targets or commitments that regard livestock as the core of the methane debate.

2.2 Leaders’ declaration on agriculture and food systems

The discussion on food systems is gaining ground on the global climate agenda. Moreover, due to countries’ targets based on their NDCs, the private sector’s involvement, and the setting of climate neutrality targets, production chains integrate emissions in scopes 1, 2, and 3.

There is no consensus on what the scope of the debate on food systems at the UNFCCC is or should be. It is worth considering, for instance, that from a mitigation perspective, food systems must cover a broad spectrum, from the inputs used in production to the final consumption of food, also involving the balance of emissions in the agricultural, land use, energy, industry, and waste treatment sectors.

Since there is no agreed approach on how to view food systems, it is important to avoid regarding agriculture, livestock, and land use as the main sectors to be addressed, which can assign disproportionate weights for countries where these sectors represent a small share of national emissions.

The COP28 Presidency clearly demonstrated its intention to obtain a Leaders Declaration on agriculture and food systems. In line with the commitments that were approved at past Conferences – which are voluntary –, these initiatives bind countries to climate actions and actions with the goals as their aspiration.

As a leading country in agricultural and cattle-raising production, with a low-carbon and resilient strategy in the sector, Brazil’s involvement in any debate on food systems and how to promote their transition should:

• See SDG 2 as a global challenge, intrinsic to the principles and concepts of food systems adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the four pillars of food and nutrition security: i) availability of food; ii) access to food; iii) utilization; and iv) stability. Addressing food systems requires thinking broadly about agricultural systems and the inherent challenges of mitigating global warming impacts.
• Consider that the debate on food systems emissions should encompass all sectors and not focus only on agriculture and livestock. This can balance the global discussions on emissions linked to food production.
• Consider that the use and production of renewable energy in agriculture are increasing (biofuels, biogas, biomethane, bioelectricity, biomass for steam replacing gas, and solar power, among others) and that the national energy mix is already 47% renewable. So, the balance of emissions from Brazilian food systems could be lower compared to several competing countries.
• Acknowledge that countries may have different approaches to climate action and food security and that the transition of food systems must take into account mitigation, adaptation, and co-benefits actions concerning agriculture and livestock.
• Acknowledge that the preservation of native vegetation linked to agricultural production must be part of actions aiming for more sustainable and resilient food systems.
• Acknowledge that when addressing food systems, emissions from several sectors (energy, agriculture and cattle-raising, waste, industry, land use) must be included and that one should be cautious to avoid agriculture and food production being accused of a range of emissions they are not responsible for.
• Consider that food systems transition should not define production systems based on agroecology and small-scale production as the only acceptable paths to be followed. This is a worrying risk and counters the logic behind the creation of NDCs and the variety of existing climate actions.
• Acknowledge that intensifying livestock farming through the recovery of degraded grazing land, improvements in pasture management, genetics, crop integration, and other technologies and practices that reduce emissions from cattle-raising are sectoral actions, thus avoiding remarks of reducing or banning the consumption of animal protein.
• Consider agriculture, livestock, and land use as different sectors, avoiding the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) treatment, which regards all land use emissions as deriving from agriculture.

3. General recommendations for Brazilian negotiators

Historically, Brazil occupies a significant position in the multilateral climate agenda. The fact that COP30 will be held in Belém in 2025 reinforces Brazil’s role as a country with an ambitious goal of emissions neutrality by 2050 and, more than that, as a leader in implementing climate action.

Considering this, as well as the issues highlighted above – which will be at the heart of the COP28 negotiations –, CNA reasserts its commitment to strengthening low-carbon agriculture and livestock, complying with the ABC+ Plan as the basis for the actions the sector will carry out to achieve the Brazilian NDC. Furthermore, progress in implementing the Forest Code will be particularly important, as a means of strengthening the production and preservation approach that characterizes the Brazilian agro sector.

It is essential to emphasize that the fight against illegal deforestation is a pillar of the national targets and must also be strengthened. For CNA, providing transparency regarding factors that cause deforestation and affected areas is crucial to reduce the risks of associating agricultural production and illegal deforestation. In practice, the possibility of distinguishing illegal and legal deforestation and in which land types it occurs is extremely important to provide transparency and security for production chains.

It is worth pointing out that, according to the fifth phase of the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm), it is estimated that 74.74% of conversion in the Amazon takes place in public areas (Preservation Units, Undesignated Public Plots, Settlements, Indigenous Lands, and Quilombola Areas), while 25.26% occurs in private areas.

Given this scenario, reinforcing the commitment to eradicating illegal deforestation by 2030 at COP28 is of vital importance.

It is worth proposing specific recommendations ahead of the COP28 negotiations:

• In the context of the Global Stocktake decision it is relevant to:

• Acknowledge the relationship between historical cumulative emissions and the increase in global average temperature, highlighting the principle of common but shared responsibilities.
• Strengthen commitments to means of implementation and/or climate finance as a pillar to support developing countries.
• Expand international systemic cooperation and coherence regarding climate actions, countries’ levels of development, international trade, and international financing regimes.
• Strengthen the role of NDCs as a basic component of climate action, avoiding acknowledging that supply and demand side measures should be adopted to foster climate action.

In the context of the Sharm el-Sheikh Group’s decision, it is important to:

• Determine that the ABC+ Plan is the strategy for the Brazilian agro sector in the scenario of climate action on agriculture and food security.
• Build a commitment to link climate finance from the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, and other mechanisms as a catalyst for the climate actions proposed in the NDCs.
• Define the details of how the online portal will function to consolidate an official database of the Parties’ climate actions and, based on that, link climate finance as a means of implementing them.

Finally, one must consider that Brazil will be at the heart of multilateral debates in the coming years. As the country-president of G20, the United Nations Security Council, and host of COP30, it is strategic that the country sets its NDC implementation plan in 2024 based on sectoral plans and improving the National Policy on Climate Change.

Only then will it be possible to plan and update the NDC in 2025, which is the right moment for Brazil – as the COP30 host – to show the achievement of its goals and renew its commitments vis-à-vis the other Parties’ NDCs that will constitute a new and hopefully more ambitious phase of global action under the Paris Agreement.

Nelson Ananias Filho – Sustainability Coordinator of the CNA Institute