Events

On 25 February 2020, key food systems and climate change stakeholders will come together to discuss solutions that could make our food systems climate-friendly.

There has been a growing call among key food systems and climate change stakeholders for transformative changes in the way we produce and consume food. This event will focus on three solutions for making our food systems more climate-friendly, drawn from a report by a Panel of Experts to be released in early 2020:

  1. Driving progressive change through collaboration between industry and social movements: facts, youth and networking
  2. Towards healthy and sustainable climate-friendly diets: current shifts and likely future scenarios
  3. Reducing food loss and waste

Background

If we are to limit global temperatures to not more than 2°C warmer than pre-industrial levels, then the agriculture and food sector will have to contribute to significant emissions reductions, even though climate change is only one challenge among many for the food system, including global food insecurity, poor nutrition and health outcomes, over-use of water, etc.

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Major organizations around the world are making commitments to reduce emissions in the food supply chains. In Denmark, both the Danish Agriculture & Food Council and Danish Crown have pledged to become climate neutral by 2050. At the same time, social youth movements like Fridays for Future are gaining momentum and influencing policy makers to a larger and larger extent. The new Danish government has committed to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of 70% by 2030 compared to 1990.

Objectives

The event will break fresh ground by establishing new important links between the agricultural sector and youth movements, to discuss how current commitments to reduce emissions can be achieved, and how these commitments can be scaled up throughout the food supply chain. Given that the challenges are very different between high- and low-income countries, the seminar will try to provide a nuanced perspective.

Many have proposed that food consumption and food waste patterns will need to change. The event will review how diets and behaviors are changing by highlighting exciting examples, including the role of social movements in such changes, and how further change can be fostered.

This event will bring together leading figures in the food system—farmers, consumers, policy makers, researchers, activists and more—in order to attempt to reach consensus on some of the priority solutions, and stimulate greater ambition for a climate-friendly world, as well as greater collaboration between food producers and consumers.

Recordings of the sessions are available here. 

Agenda and speakers

Time

Description

Speaker/Panelist

Session 1: Opportunities to advance transformative actions in food systems

Chair: Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Head of Global Policy Research, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)

10:00–10:30

Registrations and coffee

10:30–10:40

Opening by Chair

 

10:40–10:50

Welcoming remarks: The challenge

Henrik C. Wegener, Rector, University of Copenhagen

10:50–11:05

Scene-setting: Challenges and opportunities for reducing emissions in the food system

Andrew Campbell, CEO, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)

11:05–11:15

Rising to the challenge: An industry committing

Anne Lawaetz Arhnung, CEO, Danish Agriculture & Food Council

11:15–11:25Transparency and accountability: Guidance for target setting and measuring progressTony Siantonas, Director, Climate-Smart Agriculture, World Business Council for Sustainable Development

11:25–12:15

Panel discussion:

Role of social movements and consumers in fostering change in the food system

Chair: Christian Bugge Henriksen, Associate Professor and Research Group Leader, University of Copenhagen 

Hege Skarrud, President, Spire, Norway

Sithembile Ndema Mwamakamba, Senior Program Manager, Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN)

Ben Reynolds, Deputy Chief Executive, Sustain, UK

12:15–13:15

Lunch

Session 2: Transformation in practice

Chair: Katrine Krogh Andersen, Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen

13:20–13:35

Zero carbon agriculture: is it feasible?

Liam Condon, President, Bayer Crop Science

13:35–13:50

Reducing emissions from a business perspective

Jais Valeur, CEO, Danish Crown

13:50–14:05

Making change happen

Selina Juul, Founder, Stop Wasting Food Movement

14:05–14:20

Social movements and our food system

Sophie Healy-Thow, Lead Group Member, Scaling up Nutrition (SUN), Ireland

14:20–14:45

Q&A and discussion with audience

14:45–15:15

Coffee break

Session 3: Rising to the challenge: Stepping up transformative actions to reduce emissions in food systems

Chair: Katrine Krogh Andersen, Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen

15:15–16:15

Panel discussion:

Reducing emissions in food systems: What is needed and what is the way forward

Chair: Katrine Krogh Andersen, Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen

Ida Auken, Member of Parliament, Denmark

Katherine Richardson, Leader, Sustainability Science Centre, University of Copenhagen

Mauricio Graber, CEO, Chr. Hansen Holding 

Dhanush Dinesh, Global Policy Engagement Manager, CCAFS

16:15–16:30

Closing remarks

Tomas Anker Christensen, Denmark's Climate Ambassador, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark 

Partners

This event is co-organized by:

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