Does the ‘COP’ Advance Water and Food Security Resilient to Climate Change?

COP28 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, is the 28th time that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) “Conference of Parties” (COP) has met formally to assess progress toward mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change. Although key points of discussion revolve around pathways to reduce carbon emissions (i.e. Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs), recent meetings (COP26, COP27) have placed a spotlight more firmly on promised financial support to low-income countries, least responsible for the carbon emissions driving climate change, for “loss and damage”. This long-delayed climate finance was intended to support sustainable and equitable adaptation pathways resilient to climate change.

The security of water and food supplies in a warming world are inextricably linked. Warming of ~1°C over the last half century globally has, among many other impacts (e.g. rising sea levels, changing precipitation and meltwater regimes), amplified precipitation extremes resulting in more frequent and pronounced floods and droughts, and increased evapotranspiration rates. This intensification of precipitation (i.e. fewer but heavier rainfall events) is especially pronounced in the tropics and directly affects the productivity of rain-fed agriculture (i.e. ‘less crop per drop’), with multiplying effects on food security and nutrition (i.e. ‘less nutrition per drop’). In Africa where less than 10% of cultivated land is under irrigation, and hunger prevalence is twice the global average, there have been calls from numerous organisations including the Agricultural Water for Africa (AgWA), Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), Commission for Africa, and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to expand irrigation in order to improve the resilience of food production and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers to climate change. Although the intensification of rainfall in the tropics has been shown to favour the renewability of vital, distributed groundwater resources, the long-term sustainability of a major expansion in irrigation whether from groundwater or surface waters remains unclear.

Roundtable discussions on Food Security and Water Security at COP27 called for urgent action to increase agricultural productivity and advance ‘resilient agriculture’ as an estimated 828 million people globally suffered in 2021 from chronic hunger and severe food insecurity, up from 702 million the year before, putting the prevalence to nearly 10 % on a global scale. The number increases to 2.3 billion when people suffering from moderate food security are added to it. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, WGII, Chapter 5) reported a 21% decrease globally in food productivity as a consequence of an unstable climate. Key talking points have included support for producers across farm scales and the promotion of native, ‘resilient’ crops to reduce reliance on food import and aid. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) projects increases of 17 to 22 % in irrigated areas by 2050. Given agriculture currently accounts for ~70% of all freshwater withdrawals globally, improving the resilience of food production through the expansion of irrigation is challenging in a world transitioning towards more frequent and pronounced floods and droughts. It is estimated that 3.6 billion people presently live in areas vulnerable to water-related climate impacts. COP 23 represented a turning point for agriculture’s recognition as a part of the solution to climate change through the Koronivia Joint Plan of Action, and through water management, albeit indirectly. Reconciling the acute connection between climate change and water and food security and the raising of the profile of these impacts and potential solutions in discussions at COP28 and future COPs are of paramount importance as they inform climate justice.

But does the ‘COP’ Advance Water and Food Security Resilient to Climate Change? The goal of this Research Topic is to highlight key lines of conversation held during COP meeting including COP28 through reflective articles not only addressing the representation of water and food security issues at the conference but also those the extent to which progress is being made through COP meetings. What works? What might been done differently? The close link between water and food security provides the opportunity for an interdisciplinary research topic between Frontiers in Water and Climate and Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.

This Research Topic welcomes submissions on the following (but is not limited to):

· commentary on discussions of water and food security during and following COP28;

· evaluation of ‘actionable planning’ emerging from the ‘COP’;

· equitable and sustainable pathways to improve adaptive capacity reducing agricultural risk;

· inclusion or consideration of Indigenous Knowledge in solutions to water and food security;

· identification of crucial areas omitted from, or insufficiently discussed at, COP28;

· climate-based, socio-political, and psychological perspectives;

· climate injustice and the representation of social equity pertaining to water and food security under climate change.

· emerging outcomes and solutions to water and food security, resilient to climate change.