We, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) make this statement on behalf of 41 African Networks and organizations representing up to 200 million Africans, including Non-Government Organizations, small-scale farmers, pastoralists, fisher folks, indigenous peoples, women, and youth groups, agroecological entrepreneurs, environmentalists, and consumer groups. In reference to paragraph7 of the Conference of Parties draft Decision -/CP.27 Joint work on implementation of climate action on agriculture and food security, inviting parties and observers to submit views on future topics for consideration by the subsidiary bodies at their fifty-eighth session, AFSA acknowledges and commends party and observer submissions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change( UNFCCC) proposing agroecology as one of the future topics for agriculture and food security workshops within the UNFCCC negotiations on agriculture and food security. We strongly call upon parties at the 58thSubsidiary Bodies (SBs) meeting to adopt agroecology as a climate adaptation and mitigation measure, which promotes sustainable food systems and enhances the resilience of agrarian communities, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, improves food security and nutrition.AFSA further calls on parties and agriculture negotiators to adopt agroecology as a standalone future topic related to agriculture and food security. We anchor our call on the following reasons. The recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report specifically notes with high confidence that “Human-caused climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. This has led to widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damage to nature and people. Vulnerable communities that have historically contributed the least to climate change are disproportionately affected” (IPCC AR6 SYR). We are aware that within the agriculture and food security sector, negative human actions have been exacerbated by the aggressive push for the adoption of an industrial model of agriculture and food production, which involves intensive use of chemical inputs, including fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides which are polluting farmlands, waterways, and compromising biodiversity and ecosystem health in general. The resource-intensive industrial agriculture model has also promoted monocrops in place of farming with diversity and deprived communities of a wide range of ecosystem services. Conversely, agroecology is a sustainable and holistic approach to agriculture that can help address the challenges posed by climate change. Agroecology prioritizes the needs of small-scale farmers, indigenous peoples, pastoralists, youth, and women, often marginalized in conventional agriculture systems. Agroecology fosters social and economic equity, which is essential for resilience in vulnerable communities. Agroecological practices promote using natural and organic inputs, reducing the reliance on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, which release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Farmers can therefore reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and synthetic inputs. Agroecological practices mimic natural ecosystems, thus allowing agricultural landscapes to capture and sequester more carbon than conventional monocultural landscapes. Agroecology elements such as circular and solidarity economy, human and social values, responsible governance, and cultural and food traditions address complex challenges within the food systems, such as high post-harvest losses and high carbon footprint for food. AFSA’s position is aligned with…

The Subsidiary Bodies (SBs) are an integral part of the Bonn Climate Change Conference. They consist of two bodies: the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). These bodies support the work of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The SBs take place every year, in many cases during the month of June, and they always happen at the World Conference Centre in Bonn, Germany. Whatever is passed during the Bonn conference, forms the agenda for the next Conference of Parties (COP), usually held between the months of November and December, and it rotates every year from one part of the world to another. Here are five facts you need to know: The SBs meet twice a year: during the Bonn Climate Change Conference and COP They discuss and negotiate various aspects of climate change mitigation, adaptation, finance, capacity-building, technology transfer, and now, loss and damage. The meetings typically take place in June and November/December. The SBs work separately, but have joint agendas as they cooperate on cross-cutting issues within the areas of competence of both bodies. The SBI focuses on the implementation of climate policies and actions Its meetings include discussions on mitigation, adaptation, reporting and review processes, as well as on financial mechanisms and capacity-building initiatives. The SBI meeting plays a crucial role in enhancing transparency and accountability in the global climate change response. The SBSTA provides scientific and technological advice for implementing the Paris Agreement and other climate policy processes It assesses the latest scientific findings, technological advancements and transfer, as well as methodologies and guidelines relevant to climate change mitigation and adaptation. It also fosters inter-institutional collaboration in the field of research and systematic observation of the climate system. The SBs play a vital role in preparing the agenda and decisions for the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) COP is the highest decision-making body under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The SBs provide technical expertise and recommendations that shape the negotiations and outcomes of COP. The SBs also inform the CMA (Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement) and the CMP (Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol). The CMA oversees the implementation of the Paris Agreement and takes decisions to promote its effective implementation, whereas the CMP does this for the Kyoto Protocol. The Bonn Climate Change Conference serves as a platform to advance the global climate agenda It is a meeting point for governments, civil society organizations, scientists, and other stakeholders to come together. The Conference provides opportunities for dialogue, knowledge sharing, capacity-building and consensus-building among parties involved in the UNFCCC process.

EMBU, Kenya, BONN Germany (PAMACC News) - Over 4000 smallholder farmers who practice Regenerative Agriculture in Embu County have enrolled to a project that will see them start earning annual income just for having particular trees on their farms. This comes as Africa Group of Negotiators at the ongoing climate talks in Bonn, Germany strive to come up with rules that ensure fairness in the carbon markets particularly for smallholders in less developed countries. Through an initiative by the Dutch based Rabobank to trade Carbon Removal Units (CRUs), dubbed Agroforestry CRUs for the Organic Restoration of Nature (ACORN), 4,096 farmers from the county will soon start earning not less than 20 Euros (Sh3000) per ton of carbon stored in trees on their farms when their carbon credits get monetized. “ACORN will remotely measure the sequestered carbon and sell the CRUs in the voluntary carbon market,” said Patrick Nyaga of Farm Africa, which is implementing the project in collaboration with the County Government of Embu. He pointed out that a farmer with180 mix of agroforestry trees such as Glericidia, Calliandra, Sesbania, Leucaena, Acacia, fruit and nut trees on one hectare of land will stand a chance to earn at least 120 Euros (Sh18,000) per year per hectare depending on the size and type of the trees on the farm. In this scheme, farmers will receive up to 80 percent of the sales of the CRUs where each CRU represents one ton of carbon dioxide that has been removed from the atmosphere and stored into tree biomass. The payment will be partly in cash and partly in-kind (form of seedlings or beehives). Recent transactions in the carbon market were between 20 Euros (Sh3,000) to 31 Euros (Sh4,650) per CRU. Based on the prevailing prices, an average farmer in Embu County can sequester between zero and six CRUs per year, which translates to a maximum of Sh27,900, and a minimum or Sh18,000 for the best performing farmers. “However, given the unique circumstances of every farmer and plot of land, no specific numbers can be given at the moment,” said Nyaga. Carbon markets, according to the United Nations (UN) are trading systems in which carbon credits are sold and bought. A carbon credit is therefore a reduction or removal of emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for emissions made elsewhere. However, some African civil society activists have observed that the carbon credits are underpriced, and therefore a false solution for African smallholders. “This is a situation where these smallholders are actually being paid by someone else to carry their responsibility for polluting the environment consequently causing climate change,” Charles Mwangi, the Head of Programs and Research at the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) told PAMACC at the SB Climate Conference in Bonn. “Here at PACJA, we have our reservations because if this is supposed to be a business, we believe smallholders are investing so much in terms of manpower, the cost of maintaining the trees, and…

BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - There is no agreed definition of "Loss and damage" in the international climate negotiations. However, according to Climate Promise, the term can refer to the unavoidable impacts of climate change that occur despite, or in the absence of, mitigation and adaptation. Importantly, it highlights that there are limits to what adaptation can accomplish; when tipping point thresholds are crossed, climate change impacts can become unavoidable. Loss and damage can refer to both economic and non-economic losses. Economic loss and damage can include costs of rebuilding infrastructure that has repeatedly been damaged due to cyclones or floods or the loss of coastline land (and homes and businesses) due to sea-level rise and coastal erosion. Non-economic loss and damage include negative impacts that are not easily assigned a monetary value. This can include trauma from experiencing a climate-related natural disaster, loss of life, the displacement of communities, loss of history and culture or loss of biodiversity. It must be stated that such extreme climate-related events have become more frequent and intense in recent years. A more recent example is Cyclone Freddy, which hit Southern Africa in February and March 2023 and was scientifically described as record-breaking in strength, length, and resurgence. It left over 1.5 million people displaced in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. In Malawi alone, Cyclone Freddy, which was also exceptionally one of the long-lived storms that traversed the southern Indian Ocean for more than five weeks, killed over 1000 people. Freddy is both the longest-lasting and highest-ACE-producing tropical cyclone ever recorded worldwide. In support of vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters, a landmark decision on loss and damage funding was agreed at the 27th session of the Conference of Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). “This outcome moves us forward,” said Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary at the COP27 closing plenary. “We have determined a way forward on a decades-long conversation on funding for loss and damage – deliberating over how we address the impacts on communities whose lives and livelihoods have been ruined by the very worst impacts of climate change.” Governments took the ground-breaking decision to establish new funding arrangements, as well as a dedicated fund, to assist developing countries in responding to loss and damage. Parties also agreed to establish a ‘Transitional Committee’ to make recommendations on operationalising both the new funding arrangements and the fund at COP28, later this year. The said Transitional Committee on the operationalisation of the new funding arrangements and the fund was established, to make recommendations for consideration and adoption at COP 28. At the Bonn Climate Conference of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB58) currently taking place, Parties are deliberating on critical issues for this vital agenda item, and the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) has made its stance clear. “The Africa Group underlines the significance of the outcome of the Glasgow Dialogue for informing the recommendations of the Transitional Committee to the COP on the…