COP27, the UN Climate Change Conference, concluded Friday, with important progress and a continued mission for biotech.
Nearly 200 nations came to a historic financing deal to create a “loss and damage fund” to aid vulnerable nations affected by climate disasters, and 24 nations will finalize the fund’s contents over the course of the following year, according to The New York Times.
In spite of a challenging geopolitical environment, nations delivered a package of resolutions at COP27 that reaffirmed their commitment to keeping global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. The package also boosted the financial, technological, and capacity-building assistance that less-developed nations need to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases and adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change, UNFCCC said.
According to the New York Times, this historic agreement comes after more than three decades of demands from less-developed countries who said that wealthy, industrialized nations should pay reparations for the costs of severe weather events connected to global warming. The United States and other affluent nations had long opposed the proposal out of concern that they may later be subject to unlimited responsibility, which the new accord prohibits.
Methane and agriculture actions
“To keep warming at relatively safe levels, experts say, all nations must slash their emissions much more rapidly,” according to the New York Times.
The Glasgow-based methane pledge to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030 has gained more signatories. Now, the pledge has been endorsed by more than 150 nations.
A draft decision on agriculture and food security was released at the conclusion of COP27, acknowledging the importance of smallholder farmers in “sustainable land management” and the need to “scale up the implementation of best practices, innovations, and technologies that increase resilience and sustainable production in agricultural systems.”
It’s crucial to keep in mind that biotechnology is necessary to combat and reduce the effects of climate change, as well as to guarantee the sustainability and accessibility of food and energy.
Biotechnology may play a part in achieving all of these objectives, from breeding climate-resilient crops and food animals to creating animal feed that can cut down on methane emissions. It can also be used to convert food waste and biomass into more sustainable fuels.
