Dr. Anna Cruse

I did promise since last year that we would bring agriculture and food systems to center stage at COP28, and here we are! Celebrating together, a MILESTONE MOMENT IN HISTORY for food systems and agriculture at a COP in the first session. I'm happy to confirm that COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action has so far received 134 endorsements from heads of state and government. With these countries on board, we cover more than 5.7 billion people and 70% of all the food we eat. The signatories of the declaration are home to nearly 500 million farmers and represent 75% of all emissions from global food systems. To support the funding and innovation part of the declaration, it gives me great pleasure to announce a significant funding partnership with a very dear partner to the UAE. The partnership will focus on agricultural research and development and scaling up innovations, which is so desperately needed to adapt food systems to the growing threats of climate change. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, together with the UAE, will fund a total sum of… 200 million US dollars of new investments into food and ag research and scaling up innovations. With the majority of this investment flowing into the CGIAR network, the UAE is delighted to become a core partner of the CGIAR System Council and support its work. A big thank you to all the countries who have endorsed the declaration and contributed to this watershed moment for the food and climate agenda. We look forward to many more joining over the next few days! #FoodSystems #agriculture #COP28UAE    #cgiar