COP29 must appreciate and elevate the lived experience and climate agency of smallholder farmers for real world progress on climate change.

Playing out against a backdrop of significant geopolitical developments – conflict in the Middle East, escalating war in Ukraine, and the emerging impacts of the US presidential election – each with implications for food production and climate change, this year’s 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, aka #COP29, convened in Baku, Azerbaijan, is struggling to get media traction. 

Formally, COPs are inter-government negotiations to boost ambitions to reduce carbon emissions and address the effects of climate change through agreement on targets and financing. However, they also attract tens of thousands of individuals working on climate change, including global leaders, journalists, researchers,  policy workers, climate entrepreneurs, financiers, managers, and technical experts from businesses and nonprofits alike. I attended last year’s COP in Dubai in person. This year, I’m observing and supporting from afar. Several CASH member organizations, including One Acre Fund, Sekem, Landesa, and CAP-A, are engaged in the program in Baku, advocating for inclusive climate finance and solutions for smallholder farmers and local communities. 

Headline-grabbing topics this year include operationalizing and increasing funding for the Loss and Damage Fund to support vulnerable communities, particularly those in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States. LDCs are requesting an annual allocation of $1.3 trillion, and European countries are reportedly considering $200-300 billion. It is important to advance innovative funding pathways (e.g., blended financing that combines public and private capital) that support climate resilience without adding to the financial burdens of vulnerable countries. 

A key challenge, often overlooked but crucial to CASH, is ensuring that funding effectively reaches frontline communities, including smallholder farmers, who are grappling with droughts, floods, extreme heat waves, and pest outbreaks. Smallholders need adaptation support and can also significantly contribute to emissions reductions ( e.g., methane from rice and livestock production, reduction in nitrous oxide emissions from chemical fertilizer, reduction in crop residue burning). 

It is striking that our Farmer Voice Report, premised on research conducted by CASH (1600 interviews with farmers in 10 countries), is still the most recent effort to capture the voice of the farmers regarding their perception of agency and their role in responding to and addressing climate change. A whopping 98% of respondent farmers indicated an appetite to be active agents of climate change mitigation, willing to pursue regenerative and climate-smart practices. However, to realize this, they need financing, support, and long-term financial incentives (e.g., rights/titles to the lands they are cultivating). We need people in power to listen to farmers and amplify their decision-making voices. 

Monday, 11/18, was Food, Water, and Agriculture Day at COP29. Last year was the first time this thematic day was on the agenda, and it is expected to become a permanent fixture in the climate conversation. Food, Water, and Agriculture Day offered an opportunity to double-click and advance adaptation and mitigation solutions for land stewards. A strong call was made by the World Farmers’ Organization and others that a significant portion of funding from the Loss and Damage Fund needs to be channeled to frontline communities. I’m encouraged by the new declaration on reducing methane from organic waste and by the launch of the Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers, which aims to improve access to climate finance and foster collaboration.  

Food and agriculture systems must and can be part of any big-picture climate solution. Family farms continue to grow over 70% of the world’s food supply. Smallholders who work less than two hectares in land holdings grow about one-third of the world’s food (FAO 2021), yet they receive less than 2% of all climate finance. In addition to finance, smallholders need technical expertise, affordable quality inputs, and market access to support sustainably grown food and fibers.   

We modestly estimate that smallholder farmers changing to regenerative practices have the potential to sequester 30 gigatons of carbon across 570m hectares by 2050. This could create $600bn in revenue, with significant co-benefits for frontline communities.

At CASH, we are developing a carbon portfolio that supports members in exploring the feasibility of carbon finance for smallholder agroforestry and substituting crop residue-burning projects. We have built an economic model that allows us to experiment with multiple revenue and cost scenarios for smallholder agroforestry projects to identify and develop optimal project finance structures, create scalable paths, identify win-win solutions for all stakeholders, and optimize climate, financial, and social outcomes.  

We hope the parties to COP29 will make the right decisions to ensure our collective future. And that more so than ever, big announcements must be translated into real-world action. The CASH Coalition will continue to work on overcoming barriers that inhibit smallholder adaptation and prevent them from contributing to and benefiting from mitigation and carbon removal through regenerative practices. 

Heiner Baumann

20 November, 2024