For the first time ever, this year’s UN climate change conference – COP27 – will host pavilions dedicated to food-systems change, including the Food4Climate Pavilion organised by global food awareness NGO ProVeg International and 17 other partners from around the world. Smart Protein Project Manager Dr Jacqueline Lyons will be there to represent Smart Protein.
The Food4Climate Pavilion at this year’s UN climate event will highlight the ways in which food and agriculture systems need to change in order to effectively tackle the climate crisis. Nearly 200 country delegations will visit the COP27 conference, which takes place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in November this year.
A fundamental transformation of the ways we produce and consume food is urgently needed. Plant-based whole foods, as well as meat, fish, and dairy alternatives have an important role to play in the shift towards healthier and more sustainable food systems. Due to their lower emissions, lower resource use, and smaller impact on environmental degradation, the IPCC has identified the shift to more plant-based diets as an important climate-change mitigation and adaptation strategy. Foods such as the sustainable alternative proteins developed as part of the Smart Protein project are key to facilitating this shift.
Without addressing food-systems change at the UN level, global climate targets such as those set out in the Paris Agreement will simply not be met.
“This approval from the UN to set up the Food4Climate Pavilion at COP27 really marks a tectonic shift in their approach to food systems,” said Raphael Podselver, Head of UN Advocacy at ProVeg.
“As individuals, we can make many changes to minimise the environmental impact of our food choices. But individual actions need to be matched by meaningful policy frameworks that support truly sustainable food systems, considering each point along the food supply chain,” commented Dr Jacqueline Lyons.
The Smart Protein project will host an ‘Innovation for Protein Diversification’ session as part of the Horizon4Proteins collaboration on 10 November, where positive and comprehensive policy frameworks will be discussed to support the development of alternative proteins.
For more information, visit the Food4Climate Pavilion website at: https://food4climatepavilion.com/#programme