COP28 Daily Digest: Everything You Need To Know in Food and Climate News – Day 9

Welcome to Day 9 of #COP28. In Green Queen’s COP28 Daily Digest, our editorial team curates the must-reads, the must-bookmarks and the must-knows from around the interwebs to help you ‘skim the overwhelm’.

Catch up: DAY 1 – DAY 2 – DAYS 3 & 4 – DAY 5 – DAY 6 – DAY 7 – REST DAY – DAY 8

Headlines You Need To Know

The COP-related news you cannot miss.

BIG MEAT AND DAIRY SHOW UP IN RECORD NUMBERS: At the first food-focused COP, you just knew there’ll be Big Ag hoping to influence proceedings. The food and agriculture industry has sent three times as many delegates as last year’s summit, with meat and dairy represented by 120 and the number of agribusiness lobbyists doubling from COP27 to 340.

DUBAI ANNOUNCES PLAN TO CUT EMISSIONS IN HALF BY 2030: COP28 host Dubai has revealed that it plans to slash its carbon emissions by 50% by the end of the decade, which will help accelerate its clean energy transition plans and 2050 net-zero goal.

THOUSANDS TO JOIN CLIMATE JUSTICE PROTESTS IN 53 COUNTRIES: Today is the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice, which will be marked by demonstrations across the world – in 300 cities and 53 counties – to demand climate justice from all governments, but especially the wealthiest nations in the Global North.

INITIATIVE TO INCREASE YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN CLIMATE LAUNCHED: An International Youth Climate Program has been announced to increase youth participation in COP. Plus, the Youth Climate Champion, which amplifies the voices of under-35s with an emphasis on those from vulnerable communities, Indigenous populations or those with disabilities, was also introduced.

INDIGENOUS SCHEME TO INCREASE DIRECT ACCESS TO FINANCE: COP28 saw the launch of the Podong Indigenous Peoples Initiative, co-designed and -led by the IUCN, its Indigenous Peoples Organisations, and the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity. This aims to mobilise $200M in funding and improve direct access to climate finance for Indigenous communities around the world, who make up 6% of the global population.

60 COUNTRIES ENDORSE GENDER-RESPONSIVE CLIMATE PARTNERSHIP: Since 80% of the people displaced by the climate crisis are women, 60 countries have endorsed a Gender-Responsive Just Transitions & Climate Action Partnership, which seeks to enhance gender and climate data and ensure that it’s used in decision-making by leaders.

Key #COP28 Reports

The food and climate reports you need to know about today.

• NYT, Reuters, Bloomberg top fossil fuel enablers in media: An investigation by DeSmog and Drilled has revealed that the in-house ad agencies of leading trusted media houses – the New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg, Reuters, Bloomberg, The Economist, the Financial Times and the Washington Post – have been producing and promoting content for fossil fuel companies. (News website Semafor has also been criticised previously for taking money from Chevron.)
• Meat climate neutrality claims too good to be true: The push for GWP* is under the spotlight and has received criticism for being a tool the meat industry can use to greenwash consumers, and a new report delves deeper to tackle the question: are climate neutrality claims in the livestock sector too good to be true? The answer is yes.
• Developing a farmer-centric, outcomes-based framework: Regen10 has published the first draft of its outcomes-based framework for a regenerative food system, representing a holistic and inclusive approach to measuring progress towards regenerative food systems, while improving farmers’ livelihoods, benefitting the climate, and reducing emissions.
• Analysing the untapped potential of public climate flows: New analysis into public climate finance flows – titled ‘Untapped Potential’ and representing over 35 million family farmers across Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific – reveals that only a tiny amount of money spent on these farmers and sustainable agriculture.
• Studies that show eating meat is bad for the climate: This is a subject covered by studies time and again – so it’s awesome to have a resource where you can view some of the biggest studies showing the impact of meat and dairy on the planet. Sentient Media has curated a great list for this very purpose.
• Common principles to promote eco-positive finance: The European Investment Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) have published common principles to identify, track and increase climate-friendly finance by by mainstreaming nature in MDB operations and finances systematically.

Awesome Resources From Media Friends

A curation of our favourite reads of the day – excellent guides, explainers and op-eds from around the web.

Has the media just given up?: Writing for The Lever, Adam H Johnson questions whether news outlets have just stopped pretending to even care about the climate crisis, with a focus on how Donald Trump’s climate denial is being at best downplayed and at worse, straight-up ignored.

Who needs COP?: Do we need COP to solve climate change, or does tech have us covered? Head to the Financial Times for the neo-liberal capitalist view on tackling the crisis.

True presidential colours: In a piece titled “Once Again, Al Jaber Tells The World Exactly Who He Is”, climate accountability news outlet Drilled story suggests the oil boss has always been clear about where his real motivations lie.

Why do COPs suck?: Environmental journalist George Monbiot appeared on the BBC’s Question Time programme and laid into the UN’s annual climate summits, explaining how 25 of them have been “total failures” and two “partial successes”. Strap in for a riveting two minutes and 11 seconds.

A farce rigged to fail: In fact, Monbiot’s BBC cameo came a day before he laid into COP28 with some choice words, while offering other ways we can try and save the planet.

Lighter Green Fun

Funny stuff, weird stuff, random stuff related to COP you may enjoy.

Using AI to track the summit: The use of AI is expanding at COP28. Due to the sheer volume of content and information, experts have curated an AI-led COP Tracker to search through published documents, access original publications and generate bespoke summaries.

Free doughnuts!: In support of the Plant Based Treaty’s vegan doughnut economics, PETA gave away free plant-based doughnuts to the Manhattan public on Friday to spread the message.

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