The COP28 Presidency has announced the launch of the Technical Cooperation Collaborative (TCC) to support the implementation of the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action.

The launch announcement was made at an event entitled ‘Mobilizing for Climate Action and 2025 NDCs through Sustainable Agriculture and Resilient Food Systems’ during the Bonn Climate Change Conference, held from June 3 to 13. It marks a significant milestone in advancing the Declaration’s intention to adapt and transform agriculture and food systems to address climate change challenges and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The TCC, initially announced during COP28, is a group of partners collaborating to offer countries quality technical cooperation and to help deliver on the objectives of the Declaration.

“COP28 delivered the strongest political signal to date on climate, food, and agriculture. COP28’s Food, Agriculture, and Water Day saw key announcements on global water scarcity and food security, as countries mobilized behind the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action. The Declaration has now been endorsed by 159 countries, accounting for over 80 percent of agricultural-based GDP, 70 percent of the world’s farmers, and 80 percent of emissions from agriculture,” said Adnan Amin, Chief Executive Officer of COP28.

“These countries all agree there is no path to achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement or the UAE Consensus’ mission of keeping 1.5°C within reach, as well as the Global Goal on Adaptation, without addressing the interactions between food systems, agriculture, and climate. Countries must now make good on the promises made at COP28 and develop climate plans which deliver action for food, families and future generations.”

The Declaration, the first of its kind for the COP process, stresses the need for common action to address the relationship between food systems and climate change. It mandated an initial review of collective progress at COP29, ensuring a pathway for continued country progress through COP29 and COP30.

The event at Bonn is an important milestone as it marks the beginning of intensive efforts to help countries realize the objectives of the Declaration, including by updating their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to include food systems, implement impactful policy shifts and investments for climate action through agriculture and food systems.

It follows intensive efforts by the founding members to develop principles and working methods for collaboration to support countries to accelerate and scale climate action. In the coming months, TCC partners will begin to respond to country requests, including by developing deeper and more transparent collaboration among each other to ensure that national priorities are covered, identification of gaps and opportunities, and harmonized scaling up of technical cooperation.

The founding members of the TCC include, COP28 UAE, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), AGRA, CGIAR, GAIN, the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).