COP30 ends without action on food systems

Despite being billed as ‘the COP of truth’, COP30 has ended without recognising industrial food systems as a major source of climate pollution.

Industrial agriculture’s fossil fuel dependency unaddressed in COP30 outcome

IPES-Food warns that the final agreement fails to address the one-third of global warming emissions from food systems or the escalating damages caused by fossil-fuel-dependent industrial agriculture – risking deeper climate and hunger crises.

Food appears only once in the negotiated text, as a narrow indicator on ‘climate resilient food production’ under the Global Goal on Adaptation.

No roadmap for tackling commodity-driven deforestation

There is no mention of food systems, no roadmap to tackle deforestation, and no recognition that industrial agriculture drives nearly 90% of forest loss worldwide.

Negotiators also weakened language in the Mitigation Work Programme from addressing the ‘drivers’ of deforestation to vague ‘challenges’.

Brazil showcased real food system solutions absent from the negotiations

This omission sits in stark contrast to the summit itself, held in the heart of the Amazon, where 30% of all food served came from agroecological family farmers and traditional communities, and where concrete public policy proposals for a just transition of food systems were on full display.

Key concerns: 

• Industrial food systems omitted entirely, despite being responsible for at least one-third of global emissions, 40% of petrochemical use, and 15% of fossil fuel consumption.
• Deforestation commitments diluted, with no reference to commodity-driven deforestation or industrial agriculture.
• Corporate influence unchecked, with over 300 industrial agriculture lobbyists shaping discussions and promoting false solutions.
• IPES-Food welcomed the Belém Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and Human-Centered Climate Action’s recognition of small-scale producers as those most affected by climate change and key stewards of ecosystems – but warned that it fails to differentiate fossil-fuel-dependent industrial agriculture from the agroecological farming needed to feed the world amid accelerating climate breakdown.

IPES-Food urges governments to transform food systems and phase out fossil fuels

IPES-Food warns that climate, hunger, and poverty goals will remain out of reach unless industrial food systems are fundamentally transformed, phasing out fossil fuels in food production, and investing in agroecology and food sovereignty.

Raj Patel, IPES-Food panel expert

Food systems – which governments claimed were central to climate action – have been erased from these negotiations. Not by accident. Industrial agriculture holds extraordinary power over this process, and it shows. Two years ago, 160 countries signed a Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture with great ceremony. Today they cannot bring themselves to mention the word ‘food’ in the Muritão decision.

This is not failure. This is capture. And until we name it for what it is – until governments choose people over corporate interests – these negotiations will continue to betray the very communities they claim to serve.

Raj Patel, IPES-Food panel expert

Elisabetta Recine, IPES-Food panel expert

Food solutions were on display everywhere around COP30 – from the 80 tonnes of local and agroecological meals served, to concrete proposals for tackling hunger – but none of this made it into the negotiating rooms or the final agreement. Despite all the talk, negotiators failed to act, and the lived realities of people most affected by hunger, poverty, and climate shocks went unheard.

Elisabetta Recine, IPES-Food panel expert, and President of the Brazilian National Food and Nutrition Security Council (Consea), who advises the Lula government on its hunger policy