Highlights and images for 4 June 2026

The third day of the FAO-IPCC Expert Meeting on Agriculture and Food focused on identifying synergies, co-benefits, and scalable solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation across agrifood systems. Participants considered examples of climate responses with co-benefits across adaptation, mitigation, food security, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development, as well as the enabling conditions required to support implementation at scale.

In the morning session, Rachel Bezner Kerr, Professor, Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment, Cornell University, examined synergies and trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation in agrifood systems. Drawing on findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), she highlighted evidence that many food system responses simultaneously contribute to adaptation, mitigation, and broader development objectives. 

Bezner Kerr then presented examples from recent literature of agrifood response options that demonstrate potential synergies and co-benefits, including biochar, agroforestry, agroecosystem diversification, community-based mangrove restoration, social protection programmes, public procurement of diverse foods, urban nature-based solutions, and agroecological approaches. 

During the subsequent discussion, participants emphasized the need to place people at the center of climate action. They stressed the importance of understanding how benefits and burdens are distributed across actors and regions, noting that marginalized groups, such as Indigenous Peoples and smallholder farmers, often bear disproportionate costs while larger actors enjoy many of the benefits.

Participants further emphasized the importance of prioritizing subsidies for sustainable food systems rather than for unsustainable ones, and integrating equity and justice lenses into agrifood systems.

In a session on enabling environment and governance and co-benefits across agrifood systems, Claudia Ringler, Director, Agrifood Innovation and Resilience, International Food Policy Research Institute, presented a framework for climate action based on knowledge, motivation, and agency. She highlighted declining investments in knowledge generation for climate action and discussed how both external and internal factors influence motivation. 

Ringler highlighted key elements to improve agency in agrifood systems, including addressing inequality, and improving access to information and technology. On the application of the framework, she highlighted identification of key actors with their existing knowledge, motivations, and agency.

Participants subsequently gathered in four breakout sessions, on: integrating agrifood systems into national climate policies; finance, investment, and economic feasibility; governance, institutions, and policy coherence; and food systems approaches across the Rio Conventions. 

During discussions following the breakout groups, participants stressed the need to consider the effectiveness of adaptation measures and whether they reduce vulnerability and build resilience. They also highlighted the role of markets, value chains, and cross-sectoral partnerships in supporting adaptation and mitigation. 

The final session of the day focused on scalable and sustainable solutions for low-emission, climate-adapted, and resilient agrifood systems. Lini Wollenberg, Project Lead, Climate Action, Alliance Bioversity International and CIAT, noted that credible co-benefits exist for established practices such as agroforestry, crop diversification, soil nutrient management, and solar irrigation and agrivoltaics, but cautioned that solutions need to be tested and implemented at scale. 

Wollenberg underscored that most synergy claims are based on evidence for either mitigation or adaptation alone, while studies rarely measure both outcomes simultaneously. She identified critical knowledge gaps for adaptation and mitigation solutions, including: integrated system and frontier technology development and testing; measurement of adaptation and mitigation impacts; policy and institutional implementation design factors and impacts; and regional evidence asymmetries. She emphasized the need to move from the “science of possibility” toward the “science of practice.” 

Following this keynote, participants gathered in four breakout sessions, on: climate-smart production systems; landscape and ecosystem-based solutions; innovation and technological solutions; and innovation in policy and governance and enhancement in capacity. 

In the subsequent discussion, participants pointed at increasing disparities between the Global North and South caused by access to technologies and data bias of Artificial Intelligence applications. One participant highlighted the barriers that land rights pose to implementation in some cases. Another urged consideration of all sustainability dimensions when assessing solutions for future agrifood systems. 

On Friday, the final day of the expert meeting, discussions will focus on pathways for implementation.