Dubai, United Arab Emirates (IICA) — Meeting in the United Arab Emirates, where the world’s major environmental negotiating forum is underway, the ministers of agriculture of the Americas warned that smoother and faster access to funds for climate financing must be guaranteed, to enable the sector to make a greater contribution to resolving the global environmental crisis.

The meeting was organised by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in Dubai, where the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is currently taking place. The conference has brought together more than 70,000 global leaders, among them heads of State, ministers, senior officials, international organisations, private sector representatives, as well as youth and civil society organisations.

Discussions at the global event are focusing on how to make headway in implementing the Paris Agreement of 2015, in which the international community committed to transform its production and consumption practices to curb climate change.

The ministers of the Americas stressed that the agriculture sector is not the main perpetrator of climate change, and is in fact the only sector capable of capturing carbon in the soil. They all agreed that developed countries must honour their commitment to fund climate change mitigation and adaptation projects in the developing countries.

Likewise, they discussed ways in which to free up funds from international climate finance agencies, which were created to benefit developing countries, but often do not respond with the urgency required by the environmental crisis.

Various agriculture ministers of the region attended the meeting, namely Fernando Mattos, minister of livestock, agriculture and fisheries of Uruguay and current chair of the Inter-American Board of Agriculture; Esteban Valenzuela of Chile; Víctor Villalobos of Mexico; Ronald Roger of Dominica; Laura Suazo of Honduras, and Saboto Caesar of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Also in attendance were deputy ministers Francisco Minuche Verdaguer, of Ecuador; Víctor Hugo Parra of Peru; and Elmer Oliva of Guatemala; along with Odette Varela, director of El Salvador’s National School of Agriculture (ENA); Valdrack Jeantshke, head of the Nicaraguan delegation at COP, and Clifor Martínez, representing the minister of agriculture of Belize.

The ministers were given a presentation by IICA Goodwill Ambassador, Professor Rattan Lal, who is considered the world’s leading authority on soil sciences.

Various specialists also delivered presentations on how to access climate financing. Ignacio Lorenzo of the Climate Financing and Positive Biodiversity Division of CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean spoke about different financial funds that are accessible to the agriculture sector. Charlotte Streck of Climate Focus discussed the specific features of voluntary carbon markets. Vijay Kumar of RySS provided examples of successful sustainable agriculture projects. Finally, Keith Agoda of Producers Trust and Paola di Almeida of Pegasus Capital spoke about private sector funding.

Agriculture as a solution

Fernando Mattos emphasised that, “We must acknowledge the importance of IICA’s efforts, which have spurred the participation of the agriculture sector in global climate policy negotiations, from which it was absent for many years. We are like a fish out of water here, but we should be seen in a different light, because we are the only sector that can capture carbon”.

He also reflected that, “The principle of shared but different responsibilities in climate change mitigation is being eroded over time. There is a great deal of hypocrisy among the developed countries. Today, COP28 is being held in a petroleum producing country and this sector is the main cause of climate change. Agriculture is far from being the culprit”.

Manuel Otero, director general of IICA also underscored the importance of the fact that for the second time in a row the agriculture sector of the Americas is hosting its own pavilion at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, putting on the table issues such as agriculture’s resilience to extreme weather phenomena and low-carbon agriculture. “Agricultural systems have not failed. On the contrary, they are the mainstay of global food security and have made tremendous progress towards greater sustainability. We are adamant that transformations should be science-based and farmers should be at the forefront of the discussions.

Rattan Lal stressed the extraordinary value of the region’s agriculture sector, which has increased its productivity fivefold over the last six decades.

Lal, who heads the Lal Carbon Center at Ohio State University, explained that the carbon that the farmers in the region sequester in the soil through good agricultural practices should be transformed into another income-generating commodity. “This could transform economies,” he said.

Saboto Caesar, minister of agriculture of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, underscored the importance of IICA’s work in positioning the region’s agriculture sector in climate negotiations and stressed the need for national authorities in each country to work with the sector to design climate action plans.

On the other hand, Laura Suazo, the first woman at the helm of Honduras’ Secretariat of Agriculture and Livestock, said that accessing environmental funds is a lengthy process. “Something must be done to streamline their operations, because they are not playing the role that they should,” she said.

Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture Víctor Villalobos warned that climate action funds for the agriculture sector of Latin America and the Caribbean should not increase the debt owed by countries. “They should not be seen as credit,” he insisted, “given that they are payment for environmental services”.

The meeting was closed by Lloyd Day, deputy director general of IICA, who called attention to the willingness of the Latin American and Caribbean agriculture sector to participate in the event. He recalled that, “For many years everything at COP focused on energy and transportation and today the agriculture sector is here to announce that we are reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and also sequestering carbon.”