Activists of the Belem Action Mechanismn hold a protest during the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in Belem, Para State, Brazil on November 11, 2025. [AFP]
The global climate summit held in the Brazilian city of Belem last year is expected to elevate visibility of the agricultural sector, push for fair food systems, smallholder farmers’ support and agroecology.
This is important, particularly for Kenya and Africa, where agriculture is the mainstay for economies across the region, in addition to supporting livelihoods and providing employment to millions of young people.
Disappointingly, substantive decisions stalled, deferring key actions to this year’s COP31, in Turkey. Hopes were high when agriculture sector actors gathered in Belém in November 2025 for COP30. As the event gained momentum, confidence was reining in the adoption of the Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work Programme on climate action for agriculture and food security, named after the host city of COP27 in 2022.
The Sharm El Sheikh joint work sought to guide and strengthen the global climate action in agriculture and food systems. It centred its focus on adaptation, resilience and food security, particularly in developing countries.
During the summit, a four-year joint work on implementation of agriculture and food security was established, including implementation of the outcomes of yet another framework, Koronivia joint work on agriculture, made earlier during the COP25, hosted by the Island State of Fiji. The activities addressed issues related to agriculture, as well as future topics, recognising that solutions are context-specific and take into account national circumstances.
Keep Reading
Although the four-year collaborative effort on implementing climate action in agriculture and food systems was considered a success, it ultimately went unrecognised in Brazil, where the world anticipated a positive outcome.
Implemented by two technical Bodies of the UN Climate Change Convention - Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) - the delayed implementation of this joint work on agriculture and food security was critically criticised by non-party observers, including civil society and other actors in the sector.
Time is running out on the expiration of the roadmap, and hope faded away when COP30 concluded with negotiations under the Sharm El Sheikh Joint work, particularly, as the agriculture-specific workstream, deferred to June 2026.
The draft text recognises the emphasis on systemic and holistic approaches and rejects one-size-fits-all solutions, and recognises the central role of farmers, indigenous people, women and youth in its nature.
The need to put climate action on agriculture and food security was echoed by African non-state actors ahead of COP30, which called for policy coherence between Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action plans (NBSAPs) to support synergy in integrated adaptation actions across key sectors, including agriculture and food security, biodiversity conservation, water and ecosystems, health, urban ecosystems and climate-proofing of key infrastructure.
Where COP30 couldn’t deliver on the Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work Programme on climate action on Agriculture and food security, on the other hand, the Global Mutirão text adopted at COP30 was soft on agriculture.
The Global Mutirão, which means community work in Portuguese, is a political agreement reached during COP30 in Belém, Brazil, in 2025. This agreement frames the conference as a collective and cooperative effort to accelerate climate action. It focuses on integrating finance, adaptation, and national climate plans (NDCs) to address the implementation gaps in the Paris Agreement. The goal is to increase ambition and foster practical cooperation that goes beyond traditional negotiations.
In the Mutirão text, agriculture is a major implicit but insufficiently addressed. The text lacks a direct and actionable treatment of agriculture and food systems despite their centrality to climate vulnerability, adaptation, mitigation, and development in the Global South.
The implementation roadmap should guide on how Parties should integrate agriculture into NDC, NAPs or other investment plans, while food security/food systems transformation should clearly be highlighted in the implementation acceleration outcome.
-Dr Mithika Mwenda is the Executive Director Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA)