Authored by Morgan Gillespy, Executive Director, FOLU; Alessia Mortara, Director of International Policy Engagement, FOLU; Micaela Cole, Policy Specialist, FOLU; David Guerreiro, Project Manager, FOLU/SYSTEMIQ
COP30 exposed a stark truth for food systems: while the COP30 Action Agenda is bursting with energy and innovation, formal negotiations are still moving at a pace far below what the climate crisis demands. The risk is growing that governments mistake voluntary efforts for needed progress, outsourcing responsibility to non-state actors while avoiding binding commitments. This blog highlights the key outcomes and what they signal for the road ahead.
1. Most countries include food systems in their NDCs
More than 120 countries have now submitted revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Encouragingly, analysis by Climate Focus and I-CAN shows that food systems now appear more frequently in national climate plans. Among the first 50 NDCs submitted, nearly all reference at least one food-system-related indicator — an improvement over the previous 86%. Still, major gaps remain. Only about half of countries specifically mention agroecology, sustainable supply chains, food loss and waste, or healthy food consumption and nutrition.
Shining examples include Cambodia’s NDC 3.0, which foregrounds food systems as an adaptation priority and outlines needed interventions costing $45 million. Cambodia has committed to a holistic food systems transition as member of The Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation (ACF). At COP30 the ACF welcomed three new members – Colombia, Italy and Vietnam – and released comprehensive ‘progress frameworks’ reporting on how countries are delivering against national commitments. ACF together with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has also submitted a Plan to Accelerate Solutions which aims to support countries to design holistic, high-impact food system strategies.
2. The climate – nutrition nexus is formally acknowledged
For the first time, nutrition was on the table at COP30. Brazil launched the Belém Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and Human-Centered Climate Action, signed by 44 countries. The declaration recognizes that climate change is driving hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition, marking an important—and overdue—step toward integrating diets and nutrition into the climate agenda. However, the declaration avoids thornier issues such as protein diversification and the impacts of diets on climate. Going forward, we must see more holistic and ambitious government-led agenda on the intersection of climate and nutrition.
Nonetheless, philanthropy came out in full force to fund implementation. The Rockefeller Foundation has committed $5.4 million to regenerative school meals in Brazil, signalling growing interest at the intersection of diets and sustainable agriculture.
Together with the Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust, the Rockefeller Foundation also announced $300 million to support the Belém Health Action Plan developed by WHO to encourage the adoption of climate-resilient health systems. However, the plan doesn’t currently mention nutrition. Given climate change could lead to more than 40 million additional children to be stunted by 2050, we hope for a stronger integration in future.
3. Five indicators of food systems resilience are adopted
The Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) made some progress, but with patchy consensus. Parties adopted a list of 59 adaptation indicators from an expert-approved list of 100, but with little transparency on how they were selected, leading several countries to reject the outcome text and triggering a two-year process until COP32 to refine and finalize the indicators.
Still, there was a seed of progress for food systems. Five food-related indicators were included under the objective of achieving climate-resilient food and agricultural production, supply, and distribution. These indicators include measuring the areas of degraded land under adaptation practices, investments in extension services and R&D, as well as the resulting impacts on yields and the proportion of the population with access to adequate food and nutrition. 2026 will bring opportunities to align these indicators across Rio Conventions including through the UNCCD and UNCDB.
4. Growing financial support for sustainable farming
The much-anticipated Baku to Belém Roadmap to $1.3 trillion in climate finance, set a $350 billion price tag for the agriculture transition, calling for combining rural credit, concessional lending, and targeted incentives to support smallholder farmers. Countries also agreed to triple adaptation finance — currently at $40 billion — to $120 billion by 2035. For food systems, specifically, the Gates Foundation announced a commitment of $1.4 billion to support farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to adapt to extreme weather events. But targets are not enough, they must lead to additional capital mobilization over time.
New financing models for sustainable agriculture emerged at COP30, especially for Brazil. The Catalytic Capital for the Agriculture Transition (CCAT) will deploy $50 million with the ambition of leveraging $2.5 billion in commercial capital and restore 1.25 million hectares of degraded soy and cattle farmland in Brazil by 2030. Meanwhile, the World Resources Institute’s FundoFlora represents new grants and loans vehicle to bring degraded land under agroforestry and assisted restoration in the State of Para. Brazil has been leading the farmland restoration agenda, through the Green Way programme which aims to restore 40 million hectares of land. In 2025, Brazil mobilized $6 billion of public and private investment through the EcoInvest auction to restore up to 3 million hectares of degraded land.
Leveraging domestic experience for the global good, Brazil launched the Resilient Agriculture Investment for Net Zero Land Degradation (RAIZ), a new accelerator that will help countries design tailored investment mechanisms that leverage public finance to de-risk private investment in farmland restoration. At COP30, RAIZ was endorsed by 10 countries, and received the support of by financial institutions such as the Green Climate Fund and the Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes (which announced $9 billion in commitments for landscape restoration by 2030).
In the words of Agustín Vitórica, co-founder and co-CEO of GAWA Capital, “an initiative like RAIZ sends a strong signal to the impact investing market that restoring degraded agricultural land is now a political priority and a compelling opportunity for impact investors, rather than a niche topic.”
RAIZ will be hosted by the FAO FAST Partnership with the collaboration of the UNCCD G20 Global Land Initiative and the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU) in partnership with the Action Agenda for Regenerative Landscapes. The initiative is supported by technical partners such as the Green Climate Fund, the World Bank, CGIAR, iCS and Agroicone among others.
5. Mitigation targets are specified and financed
Several agriculture mitigation initiatives also emerged. Notably, the UK and Brazil introduced the Belém Declaration on Fertilisers to improve fertilizer production and ensure efficient use, but only Japan and Canada have signed on so far. If widely adopted, this initiative could have a significant impact: research shows that raising global nitrogen use efficiency from below 50% today to 70% would reduce emissions by 0.6 gigatons of CO₂eq annually.
Progress on methane proved more dynamic. The Food Waste Breakthrough, led by UNEP, outlines a five-year plan to halve global food waste by 2030—an action that could reduce global methane emissions from landfills by up to 7%. Meanwhile, the Global Methane Hub launched a Rice Methane Innovation Accelerator, with $30 million and aiming for $100 million to fast-track R&D on low-emission rice.
So, was COP30 a came-changer for food systems?
COP30 was an overtake moment, which showed that the food systems community has outpaced the negotiated process. The proliferation of cross-sector coalitions, new finance instruments, and national leadership, proved that transformation is no longer theoretical—it is underway. But the gap between voluntary action and binding global ambition remains. Until governments integrate food systems into the core of climate negotiations, progress will remain fragmented and insufficient in scale.
Looking ahead to COP31, decision-makers across governments, civil society and the private sector face a defining opportunity to come together for joint action at the scale of ambition needed. Three shifts are essential:
- Bring food systems into the heart of negotiation. The Action Agenda can no longer run on a parallel track. Parties must embed food-related mitigation, adaptation, and finance targets into NDCs, national adaptation plans, and climate finance frameworks.
- Translate pilots into systemic mechanisms to unlock global financial flows. New instruments like CCAT and FundoFlora— signal what is possible. The next phase must focus on scaling these approaches into replicable models and national investment platforms capable of attracting blended capital at scale.
- Align political ambition with economic reality. The evidence is unequivocal: transforming food systems is one of the most cost-effective levers for climate stability, health, biodiversity, and rural prosperity. Leaders must use this evidence to drive integrated action across ministries and sectors.
As the global community prepares for COP31, the task is clear: move from minimum consensus to maximum collaboration. The momentum generated in Belém demonstrates what is possible when governments, civil society, finance, and farmers work in concert. Our collective responsibility now is to convert that momentum into durable political commitments and large-scale investment that make food systems transformation inevitable.
To learn more, read the Food Systems at COP30 Debrief Document, the Global Mutirao Final Text and the Action Agenda Final Report.
