Comida do Amanhã will attend the 30th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP30), which takes place from November 10 to 21, in Belém (PA), with the mission of taking the agenda of local food systems to the center of global climate negotiations. With a position paper reflecting the organization’s concrete experiences and activities, the institute proposes a pact between food, climate and territory as a guiding message for its participation in the world’s largest forum for climate negotiation and decision-making.

Through participation in debates and panels, and by coordinating, in partnership with other organizations, the Food Roots and Routes Pavilion – a hub for exchanging knowledge and experiences that combine traditional knowledge, science, and innovation – in the Blue Zone of the Conference, Comida do Amanhã arrives in the climate capital with a clear message: climate justice cannot exist without healthy food systems for both people and the planet. Taking this message to Belém means reaffirming the essential link between food, climate and territory, viewing food systems as a vector for transformation.

The pact between Food, Climate and Territory

At COP 30, Brazil will have the historic opportunity to affirm that the path to confronting the climate emergency begins with the transition of food systems, which for the Comida do Amanhã Institute encompasses three interdependent dimensions:

Food as the axis of climate action: sustainable food systems are concrete instruments for mitigation and adaptation, reducing emissions and strengthening the resilience of territories.

Climate as a cross-cutting agenda for public policies: the most effective climate responses are those that integrate the social, environmental and cultural dimensions, from community kitchens to standing forests.

Territory as a unit of transformation: rural and urban areas and traditional communities form a living system. Strengthening their ties is key to ensuring food sovereignty, socio-environmental justice, and ecological transition.

This perspective therefore guides three main messages that the organization intends to emphasize during the Conference: the leading role of cities for implementing integrated climate and food policies; the importance of socio-biodiversity and the promotion of local ecological agricultures to address the climate crisis with social justice; the strengthening of structural policies, such as school meals, that enable the coordination of local governments, civil society and traditional communities around systemic solutions.

These fronts translate into the organization’s concrete experiences, such as: LUPPA (Lab on Urban Food Policies), an initiative engaging Brazilian cities in developing and implementing fair, healthy and sustainable food policies; PNAE Agroecológico, a program that positions school meals as drivers of the agroecological transition of family farming; and Na Mesa da COP30, which seeks to ensure that at least 30% of the food served at COP’s official spaces is agroecological and locally produced. 

For the director of Comida do Amanhã, Francine Xavier, there is no simple solution to a problem as complex as climate change. “We need to bring in diverse voices: creating space to listen to them is giving them the opportunity to build a new model to replace the hegemonic model that has brought us to this multidimensional emergency: climatic, social and public health-related”, she affirmed.