MEDIA ADVISORY: Climate-driven food insecurity demands scaled investment in regenerative agriculture and alternative technologies
December 11, 2024
With the latest UN Climate meeting (COP29) leaving the world on track for around 3C of warming, a new report from NatureFinance, ‘Futureproofing Food for a Rapidly Warming Planet’ highlights that for many regions, traditional agriculture will be severely disrupted by extreme weather, land degradation, and water scarcity, and innovative food techniques will be an essential tool for ensuring continued access to affordable and nutritious food for the most vulnerable.
The report argues that low- and middle-income countries will be most vulnerable to climate and nature disruption in a world warmed beyond 1.5C, leaving them open to increased economic fragility and food insecurity as their ability to produce food declines.Coffee-futures prices skyrocketed recently to a near 50 year-high based on supply concerns due to drought in Brazil. Drought and flooding are deeply impacting rice supply and prices in Asia and Europe. Addressing these issues and—in the case of staple crops—preventing a global food security crisis requires a dual strategy to ensure that our food production system can support everyone in an increasingly disrupted environment.
While investments in regenerative agriculture are critical to protecting and extending the lifespan and productivity of existing farmland and must be scaled up, there will be a time when even these techniques are not enough to overcome warming-induced challenges. To prepare for that scenario, NatureFinance has explored what it would take to scale financing for more capital intensive, climate resilient food production solutions for middle and low-income countries.
To succeed this model demands significant targeted financing to scale innovation and support sustainable farming. NatureFinance has estimated the total R&D investment needed to drive down costs in higher income countries i.e. for a set of these resilient and adaptative food technologies to be implemented—is around US$30-65 billion over the next 10-15 years.
The term ‘resilient and adaptative food techniques’ (RAFT) is used to describe a range of capital-intensive approaches from vertical farming techniques and alternative proteins to other non-conventional agricultural practices that are less dependent on weather volatility while minimizing environmental impact. At their best, RAFT can increase food production, produce food whatever the weather, be located anywhere and have important environmental benefits.
Julie McCarthy, CEO of NatureFinance, said:
“Regenerative agriculture practices have a critical role to play—to restore ecosystems by improving soil health, increasing biodiversity, and sequestering carbon. These practices make farms more resilient to extreme weather and provide sustainable livelihoods for rural communities. In addition, the expansion of RAFT technologies could play a complementary role by reducing the reliance on extensive agricultural land. New technologies can ease pressure on natural landscapes, enabling ecosystem restoration and mitigating some of the more extreme impacts of climate change and nature loss.”
Early-stage national experiences from countries such as Singapore, Brazil and Rwanda highlight the need for international cooperation, widespread reform and redirection of agricultural subsidies, as well as the use of new financial instruments such as nature and carbon credits, performance-linked financing and tax credits, all according to specific technologies and contexts. Using such approaches, it would be possible to simultaneously attract scaled private investment, make efficient use of public funds, and lower the cost of delivered nutrition.
“Whilst there are lessons to be learnt in financial innovation from the transition to renewables twenty years ago, scaling up RAFT will require strategic investment into R&D, capacity building and stimulation of market demand through tools and effective marketing. In comparison to some US$600 billion in public subsidies currently supporting conventional agriculture, this is still a relatively modest amount,” added Sylvain Coutu, the primary report author.
NatureFinance is an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to aligning global finance with equitable, nature-positive outcomes and thereby accelerating climate goals and a just transition to sustainable development. Its work spans initiatives that are building and using biodiversity data to better manage nature-related risks, developing purposeful nature markets, advancing financial innovations including in sovereign debt markets, strengthening nature-related liabilities, and promoting citizen action on nature. For more information, visit www.naturefinance.net.
