COP29 at a glance: Much Ado About Methane

Today as thousands of British farmers rallied at Downing Street to protest inheritance tax reforms, an altogether different kind of ROW was breaking out in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Food, Agriculture and Water Day. The ROW in question is the ‘Reducing Methane from Organic Waste (ROW) Declaration’, a COP29 Presidency initiative to reduce methane emissions from organic waste.

Why all the focus on methane (CH4)? Because as a greenhouse gas it is 80 times more powerful at warming the atmosphere than CO2 (over a 20-year period). It has accounted for roughly 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times. And it’s proliferating fast.

Organic waste is apparently the third largest source of manmade CH4 emissions, behind agriculture and fossil fuels, meaning that action in this sector is critical to meet the goals of the Global Methane Pledge (GMP), launched at COP26, which set a target of 30% reduction below 2020 levels by 2030. We’re not just talking about farting cows here, but food waste going to landfill, which accounts for 50% of all municipal solid waste.

The Declaration, developed with the UNEP-convened Climate and Clean Air Coalition, achieved signatures from 35 states, including 7 of the world’s 10 largest organic waste methane emitters. Combined, this represents almost half of global CH4 emissions from organic waste, which would seem to be a big win for the COP Presidency. Those commitments and plans to meet sectoral CH4 targets will form part of the signatories’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in February. 

Also flying the flag in the innovation corner, the Denmark pavilion unveiled “the world’s first carbon tax on agriculture”. Yesterday the Danish Parliament confirmed a tripartite agreement to channel DKK 43 billion (c. £4.8 billion) into transforming Denmark’s land use, advancing efforts in biodiversity, climate action, and water quality towards a commitment to climate-neutrality in the food sector by 2050. This sets the bar high for other EU countries.

With rising threats to agricultural productivity all over the world due to water scarcity, increasing extreme weather events and soil degradation, there was clearly too much to pack into one day. Top of the agenda was the need to make food systems more resilient (including the cultivation of "forgotten foods" like millets and other drought-resistant crops), and to manage water more efficiently, while ensuring fair access to it.

The key to food security is unlocking the funding to support farming communities to adapt to climate change, as well as increasing investment into smart farming and irrigation technologies. Which brings us back to an all-consuming row in the UK. The funding must come from somewhere, but surely not from our pockets, say the farmers.