CGIAR Initiative: Mitigate+: Research for Low-Emission Food Systems <p class="ql-align-justify">The new IPCC Working Group 1 report<span style="background-color: inherit;">i</span>&nbsp;makes grim reading,&nbsp;and the urgency for accelerated climate mitigation has never been clearer.&nbsp;Increasingly,&nbsp;the&nbsp;US$12 trillion global food system (FS)&nbsp;is in the spotlight, contributing 21–37% of global&nbsp;<span style="color: rgb(32, 33, 36);">greenhouse gas</span>&nbsp;(GHG) emissions (72% of which from the&nbsp;Global South<span style="background-color: inherit;">ii</span>￼<span style="background-color: inherit;">iii</span>￼. Whilst this system&nbsp;provides&nbsp;critical&nbsp;food&nbsp;and nutritional security, livelihoods, and socio-economic benefits&nbsp;<span style="color: rgb(32, 33, 36);">like&nbsp;peace-building, negative externalities such as&nbsp;emissions,&nbsp;</span>33% of agricultural soil&nbsp;degradation, 20% of aquifer overexploitation, 60% of biodiversity loss,&nbsp;and fish stock&nbsp;depletion<span style="background-color: inherit;">iv</span>￼&nbsp;ensure the need for systems transformation is urgent, as articulated repeatedly at the recent UNFS summit.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">The Paris Agreement<em>&nbsp;</em>(PA)&nbsp;target<em>&nbsp;of limiting global temperature increases to 1.5°C</em>&nbsp;was a critical milestone in catalyzing systems change. Whilst it&nbsp;urges&nbsp;high-income&nbsp;countries&nbsp;(HICs)&nbsp;to&nbsp;act&nbsp;<em>first</em>&nbsp;to reduce emissions, it also&nbsp;emphasizes the necessity of a&nbsp;<em>global</em>&nbsp;response to climate change (CC) in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, specifically&nbsp;by supporting financial flows consistent with low&nbsp;GHG&nbsp;emissions&nbsp;(GHGE)&nbsp;development across<em>&nbsp;all</em>&nbsp;countries<span style="background-color: inherit;">v</span>.&nbsp;To date,&nbsp;mitigation efforts&nbsp;have&nbsp;failed&nbsp;to live up to the&nbsp;PA&nbsp;and within&nbsp;FS, progress has been slow&nbsp;due to&nbsp;key challenges:&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><ul><li class="ql-align-justify">National&nbsp;FSs&nbsp;are not well characterized, with&nbsp;poorly-quantified&nbsp;GHGE&nbsp;(especially food loss/waste) and weak linkages to nutrition, gender,&nbsp;and environmental targets making it difficult to set intervention priorities, track progress, and report impacts.&nbsp;</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Policy and financial instruments to reduce FS&nbsp;GHGE&nbsp;and enhance sinks often focus on subsistence agriculture (e.g., REDD+) or&nbsp;globally-traded&nbsp;agricultural commodities (e.g., zero-deforestation supply chains), which, though well-meaning,&nbsp;fail to tackle the domestic&nbsp;FS&nbsp;primarily responsible for emissions in tropical countries.&nbsp;</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Private sector action is stymied by misaligned incentives and a lack of regulatory frameworks for emissions reductions. Transnational companies are only starting to green their supply chains and offset emissions in response to consumer pressure,&nbsp;though&nbsp;efforts are still insufficient as they address emissions linked with international but not domestic markets.&nbsp;</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Domestic policies support the private sector’s pursuit of short-term profits in ways that externalize&nbsp;GHGE&nbsp;costs at the expense of long-term FS viability.&nbsp;</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Effective practices exist to reduce the GHG intensity of all components of&nbsp;FS&nbsp;and create or enhance sinks in aquatic production systems, soils, and forests, but scaling these has been challenging, as the constraints faced by different change actors are poorly understood or difficult to overcome, and incentives are missing or misaligned.&nbsp;</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Broader understanding of&nbsp;FS&nbsp;approaches by decision-makers is needed to stimulate both policy momentum and investment in FS solutions.&nbsp;</li></ul><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">MITIGATE+ addresses these challenges directly. In seven countries that are, for&nbsp;FS, regional top-tier&nbsp;emitters,&nbsp;<strong>MITIGATE+</strong>&nbsp;<strong>focuses on reducing FS emissions</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;the predicted consequences of&nbsp;climate change (CC)&nbsp;on future generations, sustainable development,&nbsp;and social equity.&nbsp;It will ensure that civil society, multilateral, government, academic, and private sector actors in&nbsp;target&nbsp;countries&nbsp;are equipped with&nbsp;the knowledge, information, and tools they need to make robust evidence-based decisions as they confront challenges in FS discourse, policy development,&nbsp;and implementation to reduce GHGE&nbsp;contributions. The expected “big lift” is a reduction, by 2030, in emissions by&nbsp;1.1&nbsp;Gt CO2e y-1, representing a 6.5% decrease in&nbsp;annual&nbsp;global FS emissions, with 8 million people benefitting from mitigation and co-benefits over the Initiative's ten-year lifespan.&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>