Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, Transformation and Ambition in Food Systems in Asia and the Pacific

Asia is home to several agriculture-dependent countries highly vulnerable to adverse climate impacts. These countries have piloted innovative and practical agricultural solutions to climate impacts, such as agro-advisories, participatory community-based approaches, and technology-based farm information and financial management technologies.  Barriers to scaling-up such climate action include the risk and burden to farmers in adopting new, climate resilient and low emission practices, fragmented planning and monitoring of field level measures to address climate change and low capacity to access climate finance and leverage private sector engagement. Further regional collaboration to address these barriers can be more effective and potentially more efficient than individual countries acting alone.

Given the high importance of the agriculture and land use sectors to the overall socio-economic development of each nation, countries in this region have been actively engaging in shaping the directions of the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  To highlight, through the ASEAN Negotiating Group on Agriculture (ANGA) and the ASEAN Climate Resilience Network, countries in Southeast Asia have been engaging in the different UNFCCC agriculture and climate change events to emphasize the key role of agriculture and food security in the international climate change agenda.

The UNFCCC Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture is a landmark decision made in 2017 under the UNFCCC, recognizing the importance of agriculture and emphasizes strongly on food security in the climate change agenda. Countries have agreed to jointly work together to advance work related to agricultural development by addressing a number of key topics related to the transformation to resilient food systems. There is significant potential to unlock additional opportunities for ambitious climate action, including action to promote low emission technologies and approaches in food systems, based on knowledge exchange and shared understanding of the food systems and agriculture sectors in the region. The event will provide an opportunity discuss how to achieve this ambition through the KJWA and UNFCCC processes.

Objectives and Outcomes

The main objective of the Asia Pacific Climate Week event is to support countries in Asia and the Pacific to share views and experiences with the KJWA and identify opportunities for transformation in food systems and more ambitious climate action.

It is expected that the event will have the following outcomes:

• Improved awareness of countries experience engaging with KJWA process, outcomes of key topics discussed (2018-2021) and expectations for KJWA in COP 26,
• Sharing of country specific views on opportunities to work under KJWA to promote transformation toward resilient and low emission food systems in Asia and the Pacific, and
• Identifying opportunities of common interest to promote more ambitious climate action in food systems in the region.

Participants

The main participants will include agriculture negotiators from Asia and the Pacific and key figures engaged in KJWA discussions globally. Resources persons from international development organizations and research institutes will also be invited to participate in the event.