Driven by the initiatives of Nourish Scotland and the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), and supported by network partners – such as ICLEI, The Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration brings together all types and sizes of local authorities to speak with a unified voice in renewing their vows to develop sustainable food policies, promote mechanisms for joined-up action and call on national governments to put food and farming at the heart of the global response to the climate emergency.
The Declaration was launched and it officially started accepting signatories on 14 December 2020 -a year prior to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties to be held in Glasgow in 2021.
According to the IPCC, current food systems account for one-third of global Green House Gas emissions. Food systems are also being affected by the climate and nature crisis, which has already begun to affect the predictability of yields and food prices, the reliability of distribution, as well as food quality, food safety, and food security for all. The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the fragility of our food systems. They expect a food systems approach considering the range of actors and interactions involved in producing, manufacturing, supplying, consuming and disposing of food . Their profound interconnections with public health and the underlying socio-cultural, economic, biophysical, and institutional factors that shape it is never neglected. By having an all-inclusive, integrated approach to build sustainable food systems, we can bring down emissions while building resilient, healthy communities, with the cooperation of all actors and levels of government to work. Earlier there had been only limited opportunities for the local actors to showcase the importance of food systems at international climate negotiations.
The three primary goals of the Declaration are
(1) to accelerate the development of integrated food policies as a key tool in the fight against climate change,
(2) to commit local authorities into reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from urban and regional food systems in accordance with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, and calls on national governments and international institutions to act.
(3) to urge the national governments to establish supportively and enabling policy frameworks and multi-level and multi-actor governance mechanisms on food systems.
The Declaration is the outcome of a collaborative partnership between subnational government networks, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations working with food systems and climate change. Together, partner organizations have worked meticulously with subnational, city and region governments to draft the Declaration.
The Declaration also calls for the drafting of inclusive national food policies to be included in the revisions of the Nationally Determined Contributions.
Source: ICLEI
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