Friday, November 15 Water, Soil and Energy Day

10:00 - 11:00

Productivity with Purpose: How Sustainable Intensification can feed more people while protecting our planet

Criticized for many years as being harmful to the environment and damaging to nature, sustainable intensification of land, forest and livestock management has been increasingly recognized as essential to feed and nourish a continuously growing world population. More recently, it has been officially acknowledged by the Global Biodiversity Framework’s Target 10 and influential reports like FAO’s Achieving SDG 2 without breaching the 1.5 °C threshold: A global roadmap.

This event will bring together NGOs, multi-lateral organizations and donor agencies with private sector representatives and policymakers to discuss how to respond to calls for a dramatic increase in food, feed and forest production while responding to the imperatives of nature protection and climate mitigation. Healthy soils will be presented as a core uniting factor across agricultural production systems and geographies, and a catalytic factor around which multistakeholder partnerships are and must continue to be formed.

Session Organizers: International Fertilizer Association, US Dairy Export Council,
Coalition of Action for Soil Health

11:30 - 12:30

Financing Soil Health and Restoration for Food Systems Transformation

Soil serves as the foundation for food production, water filtration, carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, and overall ecosystem resilience. Yet, financing for soil conservation and restoration initiatives has often been inadequate and fragmented, leaving farmers to face the dual barriers of affordability and access to financial support. It is crucial to catalyze action and mobilize resources towards safeguarding one of our most precious natural resources - our soils. In a joint letter dated 21 March 2024, the UAE COP 28 Presidency, the Azerbaijani COP 29 Presidency, and the Brazilian COP 30 Presidency emphasized finance as the key enabler of climate progress and stressing that “finance must be made more available, accessible, and affordable at every level”. This underscores the importance of increasing financial support for soil health as part of the broader climate finance agenda.

The event will focus on how to finance soil health and soil restoration, at multiple scales (from farm to national to international levels). By harnessing the potential of healthy soil as a critical ally and a lever in climate mitigation and adaptation, combating drought, and biodiversity conservation, we will strategize on clear entry points for financing and policy interventions to achieve climate, biodiversity, and land targets. Strengthening Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) will be a key focus.

We will explore innovative financing mechanisms and strategies to bolster soil health and restoration efforts, including carbon markets, the repurposing of subsidies, legislation, and blended finance approaches. We will also present concrete solutions that have been implemented on the ground, for example in the African and European context. The event aims to emphasize the relevance of soils for all three Rio Conventions as a supportive argument to increase finance for soils.

Organisers: CA4SH, CIFOR-ICRAF, One Acre Fund, WBCSD

13:00 - 14:00

Unlocking the Hidden Middle: Rethinking resources for more sustainable, resilient, and just food systems

As the world faces the twin challenges of climate change and food insecurity, transforming food systems is essential to achieving the Paris Agreement goals and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This panel discussion will delve into the often-overlooked yet critical "hidden middle" of food systems—the segments that include food processing, packaging, logistics and storage. Accounting for 30-40% of the value added in food value chains, this sector plays a pivotal role in converting raw ingredients into market-ready products, while also promoting resource efficiency, reducing food loss, and enhancing supply chain resilience.

By focusing on sustainable practices and innovative policies, the panel will explore how unlocking the potential of this hidden middle can drive equitable economic development, strengthen climate resilience, and help countries meet their commitments under Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and climate adaptation plans.

Organised by Tetra Pak

14:30 - 15:30

Leading by Example: National Policies and Action on Food Loss and Waste

This session will explore how governments can demonstrate national and international leadership in advancing policies to reduce food loss and waste. The session will highlight countries that have put in place strategies and policies – such as promoting surplus food redistribution, implementing waste taxes and bans, and mandating separate food waste reporting.

The session will feature government representatives and experts from a range of countries to share insights into how to mobilize support for national policies and how to convert this progress into the global food system transformation agenda.

Co-organised by GFN, WRAP, ReFED and Fareshare

16:00 - 17:00

Tackling Methane: Strategies to Reduce Food Loss & Waste Across the Supply Chain

This session will explore how governments and companies can make progress and drive innovation to reduce methane by reducing food loss & waste throughout the food supply chain.

Speakers will highlight the latest developments in methane measurement and management, and how improvements in data and tracking can accelerate progress. Audiences will also hear examples from the private sector, waste organizations, and other influential actors working to reduce methane emissions from food loss and waste.

Co-organised by GFN, WRAP, ReFED and Fareshare

17:30 - 18:30

Towards Healthy, Inclusive and Sustainable Food Systems: Agroecology, Soil Health, and Healthy Diets

Food systems are responsible for 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, 80% of deforestation, 70% of freshwater use, and the single greatest cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss and land degradation. Despite having suﬃcient food to feed 10 billion people with over 13% of food lost and 17% wasted each year, many cannot afford healthy diets. Additionally, only 30 crops provide 95% of human food energy needs.

With over one-third of the Earth’s surface being degraded, the ecosystems’ ability to produce healthy and nutritious food is limited. A powerful lever, agroecology provides sustainable solutions to issues of soil degradation, climate, biodiversity, food security and nutrition, including precarious livelihoods and social inequalities, faced by farmers and food system workers.

Understanding linkages across health, nutrition and environmental sustainability highlights opportunities for collaboration and generating knowledge to call for action to invest in agroecology, soil health, nature and people in transforming food systems.

Organisers: CA4SH, CIFOR-ICRAF, Agroecology Coalition, IAAS, The Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty, PELUM Kenya

8:30 - 9:00

Mindfulness and Inner Nutrition

CoFSA

9:00 - 10:00

Communication Connection with Greenhouse

12:00 - 13:00

Climate Journalist Roundtables with Farmers and Food Producers Luncheon Series: Africa and Egypt - Pioneers in Carbon Credits and Ecosystem Compensation

Co-hosted by Future Economy Forum & Food Tank

__

14:00 - 15:30

Financing the food and agriculture climate transition: common principles for successful deployment of climate finance

(Invite Only)

In this closed-door roundtable, we will investigate whether there are a set of principles or best practices we can collectively capture to bridge the gap between not enough finance (a quantity problem), and finance that serves the on-the-ground needs of farmers (a quality problem).

Roundtable objectives include:
- Build consensus around how key stakeholders can better design and deliver financeto address the unique challenges faced by farmers, taking into consideration their local conditions, systems, and risks.
- Identify successful financial models in agriculture that can be replicated or scaled, and the lessons we can learn from them.
- Foster new partnerships between financial institutions, development finance providers, value chain companies, philanthropic capital, farmer organizations, and implementation partners to enable a “new blend” of climate finance.
- Explore if and how a set of multi-stakeholder designed principles for quantity and quality of finance for agriculture could further advance the goals listed above.

Organised by the Environmental Defense Fund

--

15:30 - 17:00

Pavilion and Community Leader Solutions Dialogues: Africa and Egypt - Pioneers in Carbon Credits and Ecosystem Compensation

Co-hosted by Future Economy Forum & Food Tank

17:00 - 18:30

Action On Food Community Roundtable

Co-organisers: Action On Food Hub coordinating team (EIT Food, ProVeg International, Future Economy Forum)

back to programme overview continue to next day