Countless CA4SH partners attended the UNFCCC COP29 this month, so we reached out to ask how it went!

Despite this being an incredibly busy time of year, we received several responses from partners who highlighted the highs, the lows, and what still needs to be done to embed soil health more deeply in agenda set forth at the Rio Conventions.

Here are their reflections, in their own words.

11-22 NOVEMBER 2024: The UN Climate Convention COP29 was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, themed In Solidarity for a Green World. The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) is a motivated, multi-stakeholder coalition working to strengthen, facilitate and accelerate the adoption and scaling of soil health restoration practices. Soil health drives productivity and economic growth, rural livelihoods, biodiversity protection, and mitigation and adaptation to the climate crisis.

At COP29, CA4SH convened members, partners, and other stakeholders to underscore the critical importance of including soil in the climate proceedings. CA4SH held and participated in several sessions that teased apart the intricacies of scaling global soil health on the ground through finance, policy, support for farmers and land managers, and more. Keeping soil health on the climate agenda is an overarching objective of CA4SH, and at COP29, the power of multistakeholder voices was heard. Read on for an overview of our engagement!

On 19 November 2024, CIFOR-ICRAF, RTI International, the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Sustainable Productivity Growth (SPG) Coalition co-hosted a side event at the US Centre at the UN Climate Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. 

Speakers stressed the importance of investing in soil health, sustainable agricultural productivity growth, and green fertilizer solutions to strengthen food and nutrition security, restore ecosystems, and drive sustainable, inclusive economic growth.

The following case study is one of 20 that illustrate the Food Systems Call to Action in motion. Each story demonstrates innovative solutions and collaborative efforts across sectors, geographies, and communities, highlighting how food systems are being transformed to support people, nature, and climate. Together, these examples underscore the global momentum towards resilient, equitable, and sustainable food systems.

14-18 October 2024: The World Food Forum (WFF) was held at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy. It served as a powerful platform, bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders to leverage the power of intergenerational collaborations, partnerships, and action across policy, science, innovation, culture, and investment. 

CA4SH members joined a series of youth-led dialogues, workshops, and networking events to highlight the transformative potential of soil health as the foundation of sustainable, resilient food systems. With over 200 members - including farmer organizations, youth, policymakers, scientists, and NGOs - the Coalition is committed to translating science into action, fostering multi-stakeholder collaboration, and amplifying the vital role of youth in global soil health initiatives. 

Watch this Food Systems Call to Action endorser network webinar to hear from expert speakers on insights and expectations of the 3 Rio Convention Summits in 2024 – CBD COP16, COP29, and CCD COP16 – and discuss a set of high-level food systems messages and asks, building on the Food Systems Call to Action.

The Food Systems Call to Action raises the urgent need to take action on food systems to deliver for people, nature, and climate. Launched at COP28 by the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions and endorsed by hundreds of food systems actors, it will remain open until COP30. The Call to Action outlines a shared vision and priority set of actions from a broad and diverse multi-stakeholder community.

Healthy soil is the cornerstone of sustainable development, playing a crucial role in providing ecosystem services, achieving food and nutrition security for all, and climate regulation. Its significance can be underscored through the lens of the three Rio Conventions: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Each convention addresses a distinct but interconnected aspect of environmental sustainability, but what remains constant is the critical role that scaling global soil health plays in achieving the objectives of the conventions.

To hone in on soil as a holistic approach to global environmental challenges, we have summarized some of the ways that healthy soil is central to the objectives of the Rio Conventions and outlined some of the key ways forward.

June 3 to 13, 2024 - The 60th session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Subsidiaries Bodies (SB60) took place in Bonn, Germany. Also called the 2024 Bonn Climate Change Conference, it brought together an estimated 6,000 attendees to prepare and shape the agenda for COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan later this year. This year, we contributed to several side events led by partners to elevate the importance of soil health.

This month, the CA4SH SteerCo met for their third meeting since it’s inception, and the CA4SH Secretariat hosted the second Quarterly Partners Meeting of 2024. With the alignment of the six-month mark of the year, and these two important meetings for strategizing, collaborating, and sharing experiences, this is a great opportunity to reflect on where we are and where we are going for the rest of the year.

To bridge actions between the UNFCCC and UNCBD, CA4SH and partners WWF, UNEP,  the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, CGIAR, CIFOR-ICRAF, Biovision and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade co-hosted a roundtable luncheon on the sidelines of the UNCBD Twenty-sixth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (STTA26). The luncheon was called Food Systems Transformation & Land Use Change: Unlocking the potential for enhanced synergies and finance through NBSPAs and NDCs, where attendees joined a group discussion on how aligning the UNFCCC and UNCBD could unlock and enhance synergies and scale-up financial support at the national level to enable food systems transformation.

For the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH), 2023 was marked by continual learning and exponential growth, and we are celebrating by launching the inaugural Annual Report. Highlights include a reflection on our roots and growing the Coalition (which now has over 170 multistakeholder members and counting!), zooming in on key engagements, advocating for soil health in the climate agenda, achievements, lessons learned, and a look at what’s to come.

CA4SH is a multi stakeholder partnership of member states, the private sector, research institutions, civil society, farmer organizations, multilateral organizations, NGOs, and more. Drawing on this wealth of knowledge, we organized the first installation of our 2024 Webinar Series: The road ahead for soil health action.

From 26 February to 1 March 2024, the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) took place at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss global environmental policy amongst the 193 Member States.

The discussions centred on how multilateralism can help tackle the triple planetary environmental crises of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, pollution and waste. Luckily, we know well of a solution to these challenges and, indeed, all 17 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: scaling soil health, globally.

Learn more about CA4SH engagements at UNEA-6.

Conserve soils to meet global climate, land and biodiversity goals, say experts.

Read the full story from CIFOR Forest News

Image: Soil testing in Malawi. Photo by Kelvin Trautman/CIFOR-ICRAF

“Dr. Leigh Ann Winowiecki, member of the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) Board of Directors, and Dr. Ekwe L Dossa, IFDC Director of Soil Health and Agricultural Productivity, attended the United Nations Climate Conference (COP28), held November 30 to December 12, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. We recently sat down with Leigh and Ekwe to discuss their insights from the event.”

Read the full story from the International Fertilizer Development Centre

December 9th, COP28 UAE - In an event held at the Land & Drought Resilience Pavilion, the Coalition of Action 4 soil Health, the WWF, CIFOR-ICRAF and AICCRA convened a discourse on the imperative need to reinforce Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by emphasizing soil health and nature-based solutions. The event, titled “Strengthening NDCs for Soil Health - learning from practical experience”, brought together a multitude of stakeholders including government representatives, scientists, farmers, and development practitioners to deliberate on critical action for soil health to shape the global climate agenda.

By Aisha and Lukas, Cycle to Farms

“Amidst Criticism, COP28 in UAE Shows Promise for Food and Agriculture

We had the honor of attending COP28 in Dubai as observers, and despite initial skepticism, we came away impressed by the positive tone and the tangible progress made on food and agriculture.”

Click to read the full story

The COP28 Presidency announced that 134 world leaders have signed up to its landmark agriculture, food and climate action declaration.

Click to read the details and download the press release and declaration.

December 5th, COP28 UAE - The Food Systems Pavilion at COP28 was filled with discussions centred around the critical theme of soil health during the event “Common Ground: Soil Health Action for Nature, People, and Climate”, organized by the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) to mark World Soil Day.

“Soils: Where food begins” will be the theme of this year’s World Soil Day on December 5. In line with this theme, the Coalition of Action for Soil Health (CA4SH) will celebrate the day at the COP28 Food Systems Pavilion by organizing a full day of events dedicated to this critical but often overlooked ecosystem. The day will end with a dinner on the margins of COP for senior leaders working within the soil health space, to stress the importance of soils as an asset and garner commitments and pledges to further the adoption of sustainable soil management practices at the global level.

Read the full story from IFA