This study set out to assess whether agroecology can effectively mitigate the effects of and promote adaptation to climate change without compromising food security.

This report by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food argues that public climate finance should be directed into food system transformation because of the potential to deliver cost-effective co-benefits for climate mitigation, biodiversity, health and food system resilience. Currently, food systems receive only 3% of public climate finance despite producing one third of global emissions.

Current climate mitigation pledges made as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change rely on unrealistic amounts of land-based carbon sequestration, according to this report. 1.2 billion hectares of land would be needed - almost as much as the current global extent of cropland - and there could be significant negative impacts on food production, sustainable livelihoods for smallholder farmers, and indigenous peoples’ rights.

Immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors are needed, says this report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). While global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, there have been significant decreases over the last decade in the cost of important low-emissions technologies such as solar energy, wind energy and lithium-ion batteries, and policies on climate mitigation are expanding and have avoided some emissions.

This report from the United Nations Environment Programme assesses the implications of cutting global methane emissions, including those from agriculture, fossil fuels and waste. It finds that reducing human-caused methane emissions by 45% this decade would avoid nearly 0.3°C of warming by the 2040s as well as have significant co-benefits in reducing premature deaths, asthma-related hospital visits and crop losses (related to ozone exposure, as methane promotes ground-level ozone formation) and work hours lost to extreme heat (related to climate change).

This report from climate non-profit Project Drawdown discusses how food, agriculture and land use contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, and how the sector can both reduce emissions and sequester carbon. Suggestions include conserving and restoring tropical forests, making animal and rice agriculture more efficient, using fertilisers more efficiently, reducing food waste, eating plant-rich diets, intensifying agriculture to spare land for conservation and ecosystem restoration, using regenerative cropping and grazing techniques to build soil carbon, and using perennial crops.

The Sixth Carbon Budget from the UK’s Climate Change Committee sets out the UK’s permissible emissions between 2033 and 2037. Food-relevant recommendations include reducing consumption of meat and dairy by 20% by 2030, adopting low-carbon farming practices while raising productivity, and shifting some land use towards reforestation and bioenergy production.

This piece from Carbon Brief explains the UK’s Ten Point Plan for a “Green Industrial Revolution” and rounds up media coverage and reactions to each of the points.

This report from WWF, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), EAT and Climate Focus finds that by integrating food system interventions into their climate plans, policymakers can improve their chances of meeting their Nationally Determined Contributions as part of the Paris Agreement.