Accelerating Solutions at the Intersection of Climate Change and Food Security

Panelists discuss the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate), a 5-year joint initiative launched in 2021 and co-led by the United States and the United Arab Emirates, and the importance of investing in climate-smart agriculture and food system innovation. For further information, please see www.aimforclimate.org.
 

FROMAN: Well, good afternoon, everybody. It’s great to see you all here for part of our very busy week here during U.N. General Assembly. I’m Mike Froman, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

And I am truly delighted to welcome you to this really quite special event on “Accelerating Solutions at the Intersection of Climate Change and Food Security.” We’ve got a full house here, about 150 people present, and there will be an opportunity for all of you to ask questions later in the program. We have a number of terrific speakers and panelists which we’ll get to very quickly.

I just wanted to mention on behalf of the Council we have launched or are in the process of launching what is our third crosscutting initiative, on climate and energy policy, and looking at many of the same issues that you’ll be talking about today, including about how to develop a pragmatic U.S. foreign policy agenda that advances American competitiveness in the global clean energy industry, reimagines international cooperation and leadership to help facilitate the clean energy transition, and prepares for the economic and security risks posed by accelerating climate change. Given the host of effects that are already being felt as well as the increasing centrality of clean energy technologies in international trade and great-power relations, we feel this is something that the Council on Foreign Relations ought to expand its agenda into and include climate change as a core part of American foreign policy as well.

I’ll say it’s a particular pleasure for me to see my old friend Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, old friend and former colleague. I’m not sure you’re the longest-serving agriculture secretary yet, but he’s working on it. And it’s terrific to see him here as well.

Today’s conversation is on the record. And we’d like to start today’s program by inviting up the minister of climate change and environment of the United Arab Emirates, Dr. Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak, to give opening remarks, and then we’ll go into our panel. Thank you. (Applause.)

AL DAHAK: Good afternoon, everyone. It’s really great to see His Excellency Thomas Vilsack today and to see this full room of people who are really keen on making a difference on sustaining the agricultural and food systems around the world.

Excellencies, distinguished guests, everyone, ladies and gentlemen in this room, it is such an honor to speak to you during—on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, and to talk about a very important moment and intersection of agriculture and climate, and how AIM for Climate have helped to move the needle around the world and to achieve putting the agricultural—the agriculture and food systems at the forefront of the climate agenda. AIM for Climate was launched in 2021 in COP-26 by the president of the United States, and was born out of the recognition that agriculture and climate action must work hand in hand to ensure that food security is achieved for the future generations.

From the very beginning, AIM for Climate has grown exponentially, catalyzing a future for agriculture that is more resilient, more productive, and critically—critically—more sustainable. This is a landmark initiative which by now enters its final year, which is concluding in 2025. But this allow us a moment to reflect but definitely not to slow down on the progress that have been achieved so far. And instead of that, we must accelerate the pace, and AIM for Climate has generated a lot of momentum. We have to ensure that we keep steering that forward and enhance the food security around the world.

AIM for Climate stands as one of the most remarkable success stories, and we’re very proud of this partnership that made this happen for international cooperation along with agriculture and climate agenda. What began as two nations partnering has now expanded across six continents, and bringing together fifty-six countries and more than 600 partners. The financial commitments have surged from a starting 8 billion U.S. dollars, to increased investments in the sector at COP-27, to an impressive 17 billion U.S. dollars in COP-28. The initiatives, innovation sprints, have grown from thirty in COP-27 to seventy-eight innovation sprints in COP—by today. This is a very important piece of information and important statistics that allow us to reflect on the power that collaborative efforts can create and the momentum that it can spin once it’s put together on a very solid foundation.

We’re especially proud that this includes the UAE’s International Center for Biosaline Agriculture. (Inaudible)—have been some of the innovations that have been recognized by AIM for Climate and now counting—counted among AIM for Climate valued partners.

AIM for Climate has undeniably elevated global ambition, accelerating the development of innovation in agricultural solutions around the world that also address not only increased productivity, but also enhanced resiliency to ensure that it also addressed climate action, and not become part of the problem but be part of the solution as well. And we are not going to stop here.

Building on AIM for Climate achievements, the UAE has taken the next steps by launching AIM for Scale in collaboration with the Gates Foundation and COP-28. This new initiative has been designed and crafted to mobilize largescale investments, bringing evidence-based innovations to millions of more peoples that are in great need for them around the world and making a global impact, but as well on scale.

AIM for Climate is an important example—a shining example, if we may say—of UAE’s enduring commitment to place food systems at the very heart and the very front of the climate agenda. We remain steadfast in our dedication to supporting and investing in and advancing climate-smart agricultural solutions, solutions that not only reduce emissions but also enhance the sustainability of agricultural practices around the world.

As we look ahead to the third ministerial meeting that we are happy to be coordinating with our partners in COP-29 this November, I’m very confident that this momentum will continue with even greater collaboration and innovation emerging from our shared commitment. We look forward to welcoming all government partners to further solidify our progress there.

And allow me, before I conclude, to extend my deepest—my deepest gratitude to all of you here today, and especially to the United States USDA for their unwavering support in making this initiative the global force that it has become today. The challenges we face in tackling climate change are immense, and we must always remember that it is only through collaborative approach that we’re witnessing some of its fruits today, that we want or aspire to achieve.

AIM for Climate has thrived because of the power of partnerships. Our combined vision and shared action have been at the very heart of this success.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am certain that today you will hear more of the outcomes of this amazing initiative and the exciting progress that it has been making around the world and will, as some significant new announcements are going to be declared or announced today. This will also endorse the unprecedented growth that this initiative have witnessed and the future potential of this invaluable partnership.

Thank you for being with us here today, and I hope that we will all learn from this example and we continue to collaborate and work together. Thank you. (Applause.)

VAITHEESWARAN: Thank you, Your Excellency.

Thank you, Michael, for welcoming us back to CFR. This is such a delight to be your moderator today for our session Accelerating Solutions at the Intersection of Climate Change and Food Security.

I’m Vijay Vaitheeswaran. I’m the global climate and innovation and energy editor of the Economist. And the importance of the agriculture and food sector cannot be overstated when it comes to thinking about climate change. Together these systems represent one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases, and yet also one of the most important inputs into the global economy, food security, the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of small holders. The potential for both the impact of climate but also action on climate is largely overlooked in my view, or at least greatly overlooked, although not by the people I’m about to introduce onstage, I’m pleased to say.

The role of agricultural innovation is extremely important in taking on this challenge. I was reminded of this when I was bureau chief in Mexico City for the Economist when I had the chance to meet Normal Borlaug and spend a day with him. The great Norman Borlaug, of course, seen as the father of the Green Revolution, showed through collaborative innovation, through understanding and empathizing with the needs of communities around the world, a consultative group led by U.N. researchers, public-private partnerships, was able to save a billion people from starvation in that era at a time of prevailing gloom and pessimism about food supply. And we can do this again in a time—this time in a way that’s suited to the challenge of our times, climate change.

So with those words, I invite our panelists to the stage. Please join me onstage, Secretary Tom Vilsack, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Sir Andrew Steer, president and CEO of Bezos Earth Fund; Elizabeth Cousens, president and CEO of the United Nations Foundation; and soon to join us, I believe, Her Excellency Miriam Almheiri, head of the Office of International Affairs at the Presidential Court for the United Arab Emirates. I believe she’s held up, but she will join us discreetly, I’m sure, as the proceedings commence. Thank you very much.

Please give them a nice round of applause. (Applause.)

So Tom, great to share a stage with you again. I had the good fortune to moderate a session when he ran for president some years ago, before he found his great calling as secretary of agriculture; perhaps longest-serving sometime soon. But could it be that AIM for Climate could be one of those things that you and your team are remembered for?

Tell us a little bit about where this initiative is in its five-year arc. And what happens when we hit the five-year mark and it sunsets?

VILSACK: Vijay, thanks very much.

And let me first of all thank Mike Froman and the team at CFR for giving us this opportunity. This is actually sort of a framing device for me. My first involvement with climate was at a CFR request. Governor Pataki and I were asked to sort of chair a study of climate change in agriculture and food systems back in 2007-2008. So it’s great to be back here; and appreciate the opportunity to talk about AIM for Climate and certainly appreciate the extraordinary partnership the United States has had with UAE.

I will tell you—I can say this because she’s not here—all of the success of AIM for Climate is a result of Minister Almheiri’s leadership. She was a tremendous partner in this endeavor. And, as has been indicated by Her Excellency, this started out with a relatively small and modest set of goals, several billion dollars of investment. We’d like to see a few innovations, maybe a few partnerships with countries, now fifty-six countries, over 600 partners, focused on innovation, seventy-eight innovation sprints.

This is coming to an end. And the question is, what’s next? And that’s one of the reasons why we are publishing today here at CFR our report on the activities of AIM for Climate called Cultivating Transformative Investments in Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Systems Innovation, with the support of the United Nations Foundation, a tremendous partner as well, in putting this report together.

And I think the key aspect of this report is responding to your question of what’s next—a set of recommendations; first and foremost, the necessity of making sure that we do integrate in the NDCs in the future food and agriculture systems; very—incredibly important to do that. That’s recommendation number one.

Recommendation number two is that we’ve established a baseline of funding on the part of countries and on the part of the private sector. We’d like to see that baseline continue. This isn’t just a one-and-done opportunity. This is a chance for us, I think, to see governments continue to invest in this space.

We think it’s important to build and to continue to build global partnerships, ways in which we can work with the Bezos Earth Foundation and the Gates Foundation and others to scale up the opportunity. Very excited about the AIM for Scale initiative the UAE has launched with the Gates Foundation, taking some of the 78 innovations and taking it to the next level, and also making sure that we continue to build those partnerships out to overcome the barriers that exist.

Look, we have focused on four areas with AIM for Climate. We’ve focused on small-holder strategies. We’ve focused on methane-reduction strategies. We’ve focused on emerging-technology strategies. And we’ve focused on continued expanded research in agri-ecology, research in knowledge.

Those four, I think, goals need to continue to be impressed upon the partnerships that will develop from AIM for Climate. So exciting that this report is being launched. Would encourage folks to pick up a copy of it today. Take a look at it, because I think it’s got rich information about what we have been able to do and what needs to be done.

VAITHEESWARAN: If there’s one takeaway to encourage our members to take from this, from the report and from the gathering that we have, what would it be?

VILSACK: Innovation is key. But innovation doesn’t work unless it’s scaled, unless it has support, unless it’s supported not just by governments but by the public-private partnership, which I think is the hallmark of this particular initiative.

Look, we’ve got a major challenge here. If we’re going to feed the world, we’re going to have to increase agricultural productivity at a time when it’s going to be more difficult because of a changing climate. So every technology is on the board. Every way of producing food, protein and substance, has to be supported. And so it needs to be a major undertaking, in my view, of governments and the private sector and the nonprofit sector working collaboratively together. That’s what AIM for Climate is encouraging.

VAITHEESWARAN: That’s great. There tends to be a bias, in thinking about innovation, to conflate it with invention, the Silicon Valley mindset, finding the new technology and producing it for the markets to appreciate. But, of course, innovation relies on ecosystems and partnerships. And many times a lot of technologies fail. Novelties fail because they don’t take account of user needs or the realities on the ground.

So I appreciate taking, especially in a system like agriculture, which has so much of it that is either nonmarket or depends on the role of the public sector and of organizations that are from the civil society, thinking holistically about this. It makes it harder, right? It’s not easy. It’s not a SAS product you can take to a venture-capital company. But it’s all the more important to think in that joined-up way. So I plug that aspect of your report’s work, Tom.

Let’s turn to you, Elizabeth. The U.N. Foundation has been a partner from the beginning for this initiative, and you’ve done your own deep-dive series of reports, which I recommend to those of you who want to learn much more about this topic, as I have, including the role of small holders and how do some of the challenges—how they might be able to adopt some innovations that sound promising, might even help them. But, in fact, it’s not that easy for them sometimes, right. People who live on the edge of assistance don’t always adopt the new risky technologies or approaches immediately. So there’s a lot of thoughtful work that has gone into the analysis.

But you actually want to take us to the second of these points that Tom has made. I want to unpack that. Baku is coming up. Many of us will be going to Baku. And then onward to Brazil, of course, the road to Belém. And so how does this fit in with the broader NDC conversation about national commitments and making sure this isn’t just a set of good intentions in a report issued today?

COUSENS: Well, thank you very much, Vijay.

And first, I just want to say a warm thanks and congratulations to Secretary Vilsack; to Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri; Minister Amna Al Dahak, to you, for just the extraordinary leadership and trust that you’ve shown over the last three years since this was launched in Glasgow. We were very proud to be present at the creation here at the U.N. Foundation and just really thrilled to see how much momentum and global community has really been created. You gave the numbers earlier around food and agricultural innovation for climate.

So we have been especially gratified in this process to focus quite a lot on the small-holder farmer question. As we all know, small-holder farmers are the most exposed and vulnerable to climate impacts, yet they produce 30 percent of the world’s food, and, in parts of Asia and Africa, over 70 percent of the food calories that people consume. So it’s a really big challenge.

VAITHEESWARAN: That’s really astonishing when you look at the figures, and also so vulnerable to climate risk, whether it’s drought or other challenges.

COUSENS: A hundred percent. So as part of that work, I’ll mention two reports, actually. Last year we partnered with AIM for Climate and fifteen researchers from Africa to make the investment case and look at how we could make investment recommendations for small-scale agricultural innovation and what it would take to unleash and scale that. That’s one of the reports we’ve worked on.

But now we do have this time-sensitive opportunity to integrate in a wholly new way food and agricultural innovation in countries’ nationally determined contributions under the Paris agreement. These are the NDCs that countries are required to update every five years. That comes due next year on the road to Brazil.

So the first of the recommendations in the report that’s being launched today is to do just that, to elevate food and ag innovation in countries’ NDCs. So the report that you referred to, we produced. It’s a fat one. It’s fatter than the other one that’s being launched today. (Laughter.) But you can have them. I hope you’ll take some home or take a chance to leaf through them.

We worked with Climate Focus to look comprehensively at all countries’ existing NDCs. And we did that because we wanted to establish an empirical baseline for understanding would be required to do better. It draws on over a hundred reports and recent studies. And it has two overarching findings.

So the first is that it provides solid evidence for the value of robust inclusion of seven major categories of innovation—essentially what makes up the ecosystem in countries’ NDC. But second, it shows, based on looking at what everybody’s done to date, is that while most countries mention at least one category of innovation, many categories are left out entirely or are only modestly included.

So (on-fire ?) reduction, maybe not surprisingly, gets the most attention, and it’s in most countries’ NDCs. But things like post-harvest handling of crops gets negligible attention and isn’t even mentioned in some countries’ NDC. And then you look at—

VAITHEESWARAN: Presumably, that gets to the problem of waste, which is—

COUSENS: Precisely. Precisely.

VAITHEESWARAN: —a tragedy, the amount of food that’s wasted.

COUSENS: Waste on different levels—economic, ecological, et cetera. And so if you look at other categories of innovation—R&D, finance, markets, policy—all of them critical to whether innovation can take off and scale, tend to get short shrift.

So what that says to us is that there’s a massive untapped opportunity going into next year where countries are updating their NDCs so that, as countries are working to develop those now, we’re hoping that they will—and what we’re calling on them to do is to commit to increase and rebalance investment in food and ag innovation with this incredible opportunity on the horizon in Brazil.

And we can all—just one last word—help them in this, whether it’s in developing investment cases, working with climate advocates, or starting already to prepare the ground for implementation, which will be so critical to hit the ground running next year.

VAITHEESWARAN: Great. So we’ll look forward to seeing how countries respond. As I understand it, the least-developed countries actually are further ahead in including some of the agricultural ideas that you’ve put forward in their NDCs compared to developed countries. Am I right?

COUSENS: Yeah. There’s maybe a fairly predictable chart, but you see more mention and more mention of more dimensions of innovation the lower down the income scale you go. And I think that’s just a reflection of need, but it’s something that we should all really look at so it’s not just increasing reference to innovation but it is really investing in the whole ecosystem of conditions that are required for innovation to take off.

VAITHEESWARAN: And inverse to need would, of course, perhaps be capacity to fulfill those needs or requirements—

COUSENS: Precisely.

VAITHEESWARAN: —where some external help could come in.

I will turn to Andrew next maybe to talk a little bit about that capacity-building and, more broadly, the role of public-private partnerships. As I see on your well-designed website, Andrew, food is an important priority for your organization, a billion dollars I see in headlines committed to the area generally, everything from, I think, you know, predictable cows and methane challenge to seaweed to much more in-the-weeds, if I may say, kind of the work with small holders and so on—so from weeds to seaweeds.

Give us a perspective. What is the role of organizations like yours and, more broadly, the public-private partnerships that you think can move this forward? It’s an ecosystem, but where do you fit in and what do you think we should do?

STEER: Great. Well, thanks very much, Vijay. Thank you, Mike. It’s an honor to be here. I’m feeling a little alone over here. (Laughter.) I did change my socks this morning. (Laughter.) So it really is good to be here.

We have a wicked challenge ahead of us—rising population, rising incomes. As you’ve said, more food will be needed. More nutritious food will be needed. We may need to increase by 50 percent by 2050.

Now, that’s roughly the same progress that we’ve done over the last fifty years. Population’s doubled in the last 50 years and food production has exceeded that. So what’s the problem? Well, the problem exactly, as Secretary Vilsack said, is that the sources of growth aren’t there. So up till now we’ve used more land. Well, if we keep using more land, we’ll get into deep, deep trouble.

Did you know that whilst human population has doubled, the total population of all vertebrates in the wild over the last fifty years has fallen by 60 percent? Just think about that. It’s an astonishing fact. Why? Because we’ve been encroaching more and more, even as we’ve been very successful in our agriculture.

So, too, food has relied on plentiful water. And as both of the previous speakers have said, that will be much less predictable. So, too, food production has relied on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, very effective in some ways, but we can’t afford to do that.

So we need innovation to move forward, and that’s exactly why Bezos Earth Fund has committed a billion dollars of grants this decade to go towards innovation in agriculture. And I should say—I mean, it's a huge honor to be associated with and to align our programs with AIM for Climate. And Secretary Vilsack, Madam Minister, this is a fabulous partnership and we are delighted to be part of it.

We’re focusing on proteins because they’re very, very important. And we’re focusing on the second-most polluting species on the planet. We’re the first, and we’re responsible for the second, which is cattle. And we’re interested in sustainably farming cattle, and then also sustainable proteins that may not come from cattle.

So in order to make cattle more sustainable, we’re investing in a whole range of technologies like wouldn’t it be great if we could address the methane challenge in cattle? That requires vaccines that don’t really exist yet. It requires a much better understanding of food crops. It requires a lot more understanding of the four stomachs of a cow, which actually we know less about than the dark side of Mars, believe it or not.

But in addition to that, we think—and another thing we’re doing, by the way, is that, for Latin America, the cattle have, like, one or two or three hectares each, which is a lot of land. And you don’t need that much land. You could actually have two cattle per hectare. The problem is, they wander around and the grass never has a chance to come back. So what we’re investing in is a cow collar that will actually steer the cows, so you could tell the herd of cows to go over here for a month whilst this grass regrows. You have to identify the lead cow, by the way, in order to lead the rest. That’s the kind of exciting technology that we’re investing in.

But probably we’re doing some really exciting work also on alternative proteins. And in that regard, we’re very much part of the innovation sprint. And that is to look at alternative proteins, which are three sorts—plant based, fermented, and then lab produced. And we’re involved in all of those. And we’ve just spent $100 million in three centers, Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein. One in North Carolina, one in London at Imperial College, and one we launched just last week in Singapore in the National University of Singapore. And what that’s trying to do is to drive down the cost of alternative proteins. We may or may not like, you know, beyond beef and the other hamburger alternatives, but that’s very early on. This is just scratching the surface.

You remember when Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the roof of the White House? Since then, those same panels have fallen in price by 99.7 percent. We’re in the same situation when it comes to alternative proteins. Alternative proteins, whether we like it or not, we will have to move towards that. We don’t all need to become vegetarians, but what we do need to do is prevent the growth of meat the way it’s currently projected to grow. It is currently projected by 2050 to increase by more than 50 percent. If that happens, we will lose the Amazon rainforest and we will lose the battle against climate change. So we believe that actually a growing population with more prosperous people needs more food, and we need all of the alternatives available—whether it’s beef or whether it’s alternative protein. So that’s the line of business we’re in.

VAITHEESWARAN: That’s fantastic. You heard it here first, the internet of cows is coming. (Laughter.) And Andrew is leading the charge. Let us welcome Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri. Great to see you again. Thank you for coming. We know how traffic is during U.N. week. (Applause.)

ALMHEIRI: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

VAITHEESWARAN: No worries. You came just in time.

STEER: Everybody said very nice things about you.

VAITHEESWARAN: Your fellow panelists have teed everything up to really, in a sense, explain the foundations of policy, the international effort, the technology piece, and how—the question turns to now, how do we scale? And I wonder, maybe you have some thoughts on this.

ALMHEIRI: Sure.

VAITHEESWARAN: As I understand it, with your newer role, that you’re looking at spearheading the AIM for Scale Initiative. If you could tell us a little bit about it and how we can get, again, a set of good ideas that come together to get that flywheel effect and to scale.

ALMHEIRI: First of all, thank you so much, and so sorry for the delay. It’s so lovely to see you all. Yeah, they closed all the roads just as we were leaving, and so we kind of ran here. So sorry if I’m a bit shiny. (Laughter.)

So, yeah, AIM for Scale is exactly the answer to that. So Secretary Vilsack and I have been working the past three years now to kind of get the partnerships. And I’m sure you’ve talked about to what investment level we got to. And so it was really important that we kind of use AIM for Climate as our inspiration to go on to the next phase, which is scaling up some of the identified innovations, and really bringing the impact to ground. And that’s exactly what AIM for Scale is about. So it’s picking these innovations. And a lot of us have seen these innovations on the ground. And I remember our time in Washington when we talked about some of the innovations. And really now taking these and scaling them up. And that’s what AIM for Scale is about. And of course, this partnership as well with the Gates Foundation is exactly what we’re trying to do, among some other things. But that’s kind of where we thought the inspiration that we got for AIM for Climate is now going into phase two of that, which is AIM for Scale.

VAITHEESWARAN: That’s great. So you’ve teed us up. Tell us a little bit more detail. Is it about the money? Is it a dedicated fund? Or is it about technical capacity building? Is it about creating markets and demand? So scaling can mean a lot of different things and why things scale and don’t scale often has multiple factors. What do you have in mind with this new initiative precisely?

ALMHEIRI: So the—not sure if you’re aware, but at COP-28 Bill Gates and myself were on stage, and we talked about the $200 million partnership. And one of the tracks that this partnership, the $200 million fund, is going to is AIM for Scale. So it is a fund that is identifying—so the secretariat is being set up now. And the fund that is going to be put into that is really to scale some of the innovations we’ve identified at AIM for Scale. And we hope that in COP-29 we’ll be able to talk about some of these. So there’s a few things we’re looking at. And if I can put it in a nutshell, it’s creating a package of tools for smallholder farmers that they can use to be able to improve their livelihoods. So that’s in a nutshell.

So we’re looking at things like how can we use weather forecasting tools for them to be able to basically have an advisor with them in their pockets, to be able to say does it make sense to harvest now? Does it make sense to seed now, et cetera, et cetera. So we’re working with the innovation commission on some of these tools. I’m sure you’ve all seen as well some of the announcements we’ve made as a country on the AI front, with the partnership of G42 and Microsoft. They’re also creating a climate tech lab in Abu Dhabi. So we’re kind of leveraging on that as well to make use of these skills in creating these AI-driven tools to help. And we always need to make sure that we can take this down to the smallholder farmer level. How can they communicate? How can they be able to use these tools in a way that will benefit them in the long run?

VAITHEESWARAN: Well, it’s very heartening to see an application of AI for good, as it were. We see so much of the news about the concerns about AI, and understandably so. Finding the right ways to nudge the technologies and develop them for societal benefit is great to see. But it does raise the question though, especially with your new climate tech I guess, incubator or accelerator you’re starting up, will these have commercial models? Will they be viable businesses? Or is this, again, a philanthropic model? What do you have in mind?

ALMHEIRI: So, yeah, philanthropic model, definitely. So the Gates Foundation, and the UAE, and this partnership that we have to drive ag innovation, and the work we did at AIM for Climate, is all for the good of—to create public goods to be able to reach the smallholder farmers and make sure that they’re got the advisors for free, basically. So a lot of thought went into that. How do we make this a public good? How can we make sure that this is really accessible for all?

VAITHEESWARAN: That’s great. I’m going to turn to member questions in just a moment, but before I do I just wanted to let you know, Andrew, you’ve got to leave in about three minutes, I understand. We have a rotating feast on stage here. (Laughter.) I may start juggling in a moment. Having given that notice, is there any final provocation you wanted to make before you left, to give you a last opportunity?

STEER: Well, the point that you both made is the trick is innovation requires the very best science in the world, but it also requires the best entrepreneurship in the world. And as we’ve set up these Centers for Sustainable Protein, again, as part of the innovation sprint of AIM for Climate, we chose the universities and the research centers after a worldwide search based upon are they leading researchers and that they have the ability to create incubation. And it’s thrilling to go to these places and see both startups and larger companies that are—that are moving things forward. And at the moment, of course, we’re still at an early enough stage that you need precompetitive progress on the research. Then the private sector comes in and they then build their own IP on top of the open access.

And that’s what it’s all about, is getting that sort of beautiful dance between world-class research and innovation. And of course, this country—I mean, it’s incredible. You go to the top universities, and it’s so wonderful to see UAE doing exactly the same as well. And that’s why the leadership of these two countries is so—is so perfect. I think.

ALMHEIRI: Yeah, just to add to what Andrew said, I don’t know if you know but in the UAE we’ve just announced AGWA, which is our food and water cluster. And alternative proteins has its own space there.

STEER: Beautiful. We got to come and see you.

ALMHEIRI: So it’s just based on the conversations we’ve had. So, again, this is about partnership.

VAITHEESWARAN: Great. Thank you, Andrew.

STEER: Excuse me. Yes, thanks a lot.

ALMHEIRI: Thank you, Andrew.

VAITHEESWARAN: Great. (Applause.) Why don’t we turn to a few questions from members? I’ll remind everyone, as ever, that please identify yourself and your affiliation and make it a good question, not a long winded speech. Nobody likes a gasbag. (Laughter.) So show of hands, who would like to venture first? I see there’s a courageous person near the front. And we’ll come to the lady behind you next. And we are on the record today, as everyone would know.

Q: Thank you very much for a great panel. David Kanter, NYU.

Speak about this very exciting innovation. And I’d also love to hear your thoughts about some of the regulatory barriers that exist in the agricultural sector that limit this innovation. We think about everything from fertilizer subsidies that can be really helpful to support food security, but also harmful for the environment. Or restricted production contracts that make it very difficult for this innovation to actually take root and meaningful change to happen. So would just love, can those changes be written into NDCs? Or does more foundational change need to happen?

VAITHEESWARAN: Great. Who would like to take that? Please.

ALMHEIRI: So in the UAE, by the way, so AGWA, what I just—what I just told Andrew about, is really because we’ve identified that we need to create a zone that is a little bit open and doesn’t have the regulatory limitations, because if we want to innovate we need to think a little bit outside the box. And there’s sometimes certain things—you cannot import certain things or cannot do certain things. So that’s why the AGWA cluster—it’s basically a cluster for food and water innovation—has been formed to be able to bring in folks who want to do things differently than the norm.

Alternative protein is also one. You know, we have to think of it also is this halal? Is this not halal? What are the claims we can put about—around this? And what—also on the food safety side? So we’re kind of making this a bit of a playground. And from that, we hope then to look at how we can then put up the standards that would make sense, but not kill innovation. So that’s how the UAE is going about it.

VAITHEESWARAN: Tom, you wanted to jump in next?

VILSACK: No, go ahead. We’ll just go right down.

COUSENS: I was just going to come back to this idea of what conditions need to be true for innovation really to take off in all environments. And that’s part of why in this report that I was describing earlier, we include policy, market, and financing, because the issue of subsidies that you’ve just mentioned cuts across all of them. So we really need to look at the wraparound of everything that needs to be true in order for innovation to be able to take off in every country and domain.

VILSACK: I’m going to take a slightly different approach. You mentioned Norman Borlaug. And if Norman were here today, what he would say is: You’ve got to take it to the farmer, which is what we’re trying to do in the U.S. We’ve got our Climate Smart Commodity Initiative, where we’re essentially saying to farmers, we understand and appreciate the notion of climate-smart practices create risk, financial risk. When 90 percent of American farmers today, in record farm income time, do not make any money from their farming operation, it is very difficult to ask them to incur additional expense. So we’re basically de-risking climate smart agriculture practices by suggesting the development of a new commodity, a climate-smart commodity, where we pay farmers for the opportunity for them to try out climate-smart practices and innovation.

We collect data and information. We utilize nearly a hundred universities and minority-serving institutions to analyze that information. We share the knowledge with the rest of the world through our International Climate Hub, which was a product of AIM4C. And we basically provide a market premium for the items that they are purchase—that they are growing or raising. So now, all of a sudden, it could be the farmers—to the point about regulation—could be the farmers that make the case. Let’s not have that barrier. Let’s remove that barrier. We’re anxious and interested to do this because we’ve seen the benefit to our soil, we’ve seen the benefit to our productivity, we’ve seen the benefit to our bottom line. And I think the combination of all of the strategies here are a response.

VAITHEESWARAN: Right. So that’s a push and a pull, overcoming those obstacles. Farmers often tend to be very risk averse, of course, understandably so. One failed harvest can devastate you. And so that’s interesting. Is it in the market, or is it something forthcoming, this idea?

VILSACK: We essentially have set aside $3 billion for a three- to five-year initiative. We have 135 contracts. All commodities within the United States, 102 commodities, are participating. Every state is involved. We now have thousands of farmers and millions of acres committed to this effort.

VAITHEESWARAN: Great. Something worth following.

There was a lady in the back, in the middle, I should say, who had her hand. Is the question still relevant? No? OK, that’s fine.

Q: Answered on the first round.

VAITHEESWARAN: OK, that’s fine. Why don’t we switch to this side here? There’s a lady on the corner there. And then we’ll come over to this side. I’ve neglected this side of the room. Go on.

Q: Thanks so much. This one is for Secretary Vilsack.

VAITHEESWARAN: Oh, please introduce yourself.

Q: Oh, sorry. I’m Amy Maxmen. I’m a reporter at KFF Health News. Thanks for this discussion.

To the extent that we’re talking about food security, I actually have a question about the bird flu, since it’s spreading across the U.S. in dairy cows and it could become a problem around the world. At this point, researchers sort of seem to agree that we’re just not doing nearly enough testing. We just saw a bunch of herds affected in California, so clearly it’s been there earlier. The USDA supports voluntary testing and has funded it, but at what point might there need to be some government regulation that maybe isn’t what the agriculture industry wants? For example, mandatory bulk milk testing within states. Do you see that coming in the future?

VAITHEESWARAN: I think the question’s clear. The bird flu—I think it’s one clearly for you.

VILSACK: Yeah, yeah. First of all, we actually are encouraging bulk testing of milk. And states are basically taking up that volunteer initiative, number one. Number two, I think the focus as well needs to be on vaccine development. And we are in the process, I think, of making some strides in terms of vaccine, both on the poultry side and on the bovine side. And I think an effort to accelerate that, an effort to try to encourage more of that, and then to get the world prepared for it. Because right now, from a trade perspective there are some countries that understand the necessity of vaccination. There are some countries that would reject it. And so it’s important for us to make sure that we don’t jeopardize the ability to trade and provide protein around the world by a vaccination system that’s not accepted by the world. So it’s a bit—it’s a bit complex, but we are working on it.

VAITHEESWARAN: And there is, of course, a larger connection to the topic of the day, that is in a world that is more climate stressed it is fully anticipated that we will see more emergence of zoonotic viruses, more challenges testing the global health system, as well as climate system.

VILSACK: It reinforces the necessity of continuing to put more research—more money into ag research. Frankly, we do a lot of healthcare research. We need to do more on the ag side.

VAITHEESWARAN: Thank you. There’s a question here near the front. Again, please identify yourself, sir.

Q: Thank you. Ramakrishna from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

This is a brilliant panel. And you’ve all done a fantastic job in really highlighting not only what the problem is and how to solve it. Since the issue is about food security, I wonder if we would include blue foods in that. You know, because about three billion people get their nourishment from seafood, and there are lots of issues associated with it. And the question really is about NDCs. NDCs is about bottom-up approach to what the countries are doing and can do, given the support. So we need to make sure that whatever we’re recommending have that climate angle clearly defined, and the amounts are properly accounted for. Thank you.

VAITHEESWARAN: All right. So, the panel, how blue are you? Who would like to answer that?

ALMHEIRI: Yeah, I can. I’ll start with the second half of your—or your second question about the NDC. With the Gates partnership that we have now, and I had mentioned there’s different tracks that we’re doing. One of them is AIM for Scale. But the other one is about technical assistance. As you maybe remember, at COP-28 we got the declaration—the Emirates Declaration on Food and Ag. We got 160 heads of state signing up for this declaration. And this declaration was really all about how can we make sure that these heads of state make sure that when they do their NDCs they put food security into developing their NDCs, that they take that angle as well?

And many of the developing countries said, we don’t have the expertise, and we don’t have the know-how. And we noticed it ourselves when we were trying to make sure we update our NDC and put the food security angle into it. So part of the partnership is also some funding from the UAE and the Gates partnership is going into technical assistance. So we’re going to—every year we’ve chosen ten to fifteen countries that we’re going to help them. They’re the ones that have said, we want to make sure we do it but we need technical help. So that’s an angle that we’re trying to take on, because it really is not as easy as it sounds because you’re taking in all the aspects of food security—whether it’s blue, whether it’s green, whether it’s food loss and food waste, whether it’s nutrition, trade. So many aspects of the food security panel that you have to take into consideration when you do the NDCs.

So going through the exercise ourselves, we said, you know what? We need to also—since we got the political will, let’s help them now implement it. And some countries really needed that technical expertise. So that’s how we’re going on that way. On the blue economy side, again, I can’t talk on behalf of other countries, but the UAE is also very much in the food basket. I mean, we eat a lot of fish and shrimps. And I think we’re probably double the global average when it comes to seafood proteins intake. So we’re very much looking at aquaculture as well, looking at how we can look at sustainable practices in the fisheries. And Her Excellency Amna is working very hard with all the local emirates to make sure that policies are in place as well. So the blue economy, and I call it the blue economy because there’s so much we still haven’t used, and there’s so much in there that we could actually catalyze because it’s such a good protein, especially in our part of the region.

VAITHEESWARAN: We have just a little time. Let’s see if we can get a quick question and answer. Maybe two people, if we are efficient. Let’s go to the back there. There’s a gentleman who had his hand up.

Q: Juan Pablo Osornio from Earth Insight.

And I had a question about agriculture being the primary driver of deforestation. When you look at the NDCs, the land gap report says that if you add up all of the expected emission reductions from the land sector it would be 1 billion hectares. So the question is, if we were to implement the suggestions that you’re putting forward, how much would you relieve land from this pressure to be both the source of food and also the primary capture of CO2?

VAITHEESWARAN: Great question. Any thoughts?

VILSACK: Well, let me take a stab at it by pointing out that in the United States in the last forty years we’ve lost 151 million acres of land that was in farming that’s no longer in farming today. Now that’s the land mass of Florida, South Carolina—Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, and most of Virginia, in forty years. But we’ve increased productivity dramatically. So there is a process, in a way. The challenge will be to make sure that it’s sustainable, and that we basically utilize innovation and technology to provide increased productivity without necessarily having the downside of water quality issues that we are currently dealing with.

So I think it’s possible to get there. And the recommendations here focused on innovation, focused on alternative ways of producing protein. Obviously, that’s going to take some of the pressure and some of the stress off. And it’s also going to allow us to continue to look for ways creatively to produce the food in the face of a climate that may or may not allow us to do so as we have done in the past.

VAITHEESWARAN: Let’s see if we can get one last quick question. I see the gentleman here with his hand.

Q: Hi. I’m Andrew Lala. I’m the CEO of a climate tech company. We’re also an AIM4C sprint partner, launched that in Dubai.

My question is around the ecosystem. And so we’ve talked a lot about the innovations around climate tech and weather tech companies, but really the distribution challenge, the cost of distribution, the traceability for farmers. Is the AIM for Scale Initiative going to be addressing some of the underlying barriers needed to distribute to the world’s 500 million farmers—small scale farmers?

ALMHEIRI: Well, I love that feedback, by the way. So I think if that’s a weakness that you found, or that’s something that you see is a gap in the partnership that we have, then 100 percent we should address it. And this is exactly why Secretary Vilsack and I, when we developed the AIM for Scale or AIM for Climate platform, it really was about how do we bring partners together to discuss the gaps that we have? Because we all know our food systems are broken. And in different areas of the world we have different challenges. And I think, to your point, this is really important. OK, you’ve got the innovations. You’ve got the nutritious food. How do you get them now to whoever needs to eat it? So that would be a great point that—and I know the technical teams are here as well—that we take this on as one of the things we should be focusing on. So thank you for that.

VAITHEESWARAN: On this point, yeah, go ahead.

VILSACK: Let’s take another question.

VAITHEESWARAN: Sure. Oh, great. Let’s do it. He’s yielding his own time. That’s a gracious panelist. One last question, I think did I see a hand back over here? Yes, no? I’m sure I did. OK, we’ll go here, then. Go ahead. Microphone behind you.

Q: Well, Shar Exan (ph) from Manna (ph). This is really for Her Excellency.

But just continuing the theme, the UAE—

VAITHEESWARAN: Can you speak closer to your microphone?

Q: Sure. Sorry.

The UAE has been really a leader in open-source AI and making sure that these tools are available. At Manna (ph), we’ve open-sourced our Llama tools. How closely are you working with others focused on AI in coming up with these solutions? Because that, I think, helps address some of the distribution point, because not everybody’s going to have access.

ALMHEIRI: Sure, sure. OK, I’ll give you a bit of insight on another project we’re working on, because, remember, I said, “amongst other projects.” And this is still very early stage, but it’s exactly to your point. The UAE, with its Falcon model, has shown that it has the skills to develop these AI models. And I want you to picture this. Imagine we could create a ChatGPT for agriculture and food. So how can we get the research institutes of the CGIAR, which is part of the UAE has now entered into the CGIAR Council. We’re one of the first in our region to come into this. And this is set up with thirteen research stations around the world.

So imagine bringing all the scientific knowledge of these research institutes and then, of course, getting more into it, for the past sixty, seventy years, maybe a scientist in India or a farmer in India could actually access information in a very simple way, to information that’s scientifically backed and verified from a scientist that did something in Mexico, for example, on a certain seed, et cetera. So we’re actually using now these AI skills of what G42, Microsoft, ATRC is doing in the UAE, pulling this into the partnerships we have with the U.S., with the Gates Foundation, with the CGIAR network, to actually create this new, I say, ChatGPT for ag and food, and making it a public good.

This is really important, because all the kind of ChatGPT/AI driven platforms are at a cost. But imagine you have something for the farmers, for the scientists to use, and it has all the public information that we have out of all the research we have, which is so difficult to find. I mean, if you want to research something now, you have to go into which institute was it, who wrote it.

VAITHEESWARAN: Which academic journal, what are the studies?

ALMHEIRI: Exactly. And now you can just ask this platform a question and it will be able to fish out something for you. So I actually think this is really exciting. Could be a gamechanger. And I always think about it, we have in so many areas—I mean, AI has helped us as a little assistant to anything we want, whether it’s medical advice, CEO’s advice, anything you want. But imagine you have now an advisor in your language in your pocket that’s free of charge when it comes to ag and food. So I hope I’ve excited you all with this, but that’s something we’re working on as well, using the skills that the UAE has developed on the AI front.

VILSACK: This is an extraordinary point. Part of the challenge in the past with agriculture has been that the gains of productivity have come at a cost, and have basically created, at least in the United States, a separation of producers between those who are commercial-sized operators, and everybody else. There’s a tendency on the part of folks to think that agriculture is monolithic. It’s not. There are those who are very large, who can afford a lot of this new technology—

VAITHEESWARAN: And who are very—historically very productive, very efficient.

VILSACK: Extraordinarily productive. They represent roughly 10 percent of the farmers. And they’re the ones making the money in farming. Then there’s the other 90 percent that for—at least for the U.S.—is the social fabric of rural communities. So as we look at strategies here, we have to make sure that these strategies don’t further divide. That we figure out a way in which we unify agriculture and that we don’t create a circumstance where innovation is seen by those who are currently in farming as somehow competing with them. That it’s complementing what they do, it’s making it easier for them to do what they want to do, which is to feed the world. I think these are really, really important points that sometimes are lost in the debate and conversation.

VAITHEESWARAN: Well, maybe your—that new ChatGPT search engine of all the world’s ag knowledge, if it’s made for small farmers, can be called Frugal instead of Google. (Laughter.) And we’ll tick off—

ALMHEIRI: We haven’t thought of the name yet. (Laughs.)

VAITHEESWARAN: Tom I’m going to give you the last word. We’re almost out of time. You had a final comment to make.

VILSACK: Just simply encourage everybody to take a look at the report. We’re interested in your feedback. You could use Lincoln to let us know what you think of it. Ideas and thoughts will ultimately be incorporated in the work that we do in the upcoming COP meeting.

VAITHEESWARAN: Great. Well, I’ll just draw this meeting to a close with one final observation, and really an exhortation. You can see that this is an area when we’re all here this week, generally, to talk about and think about the action on climate. This is climate week. But this area, this sector that has such an important impact on emissions, is under studied, under acted upon, under invested, in many ways. But hopefully this will change, right?

It’s a lot easier to think about energy systems, which tend to have big, centralized companies, centralized distribution systems, they’re much more in the light, they’re maybe politically more well connected, and so on. But really want to encourage all of us to think more broadly about opportunities, and to think beyond just CO2, of course. When you think about the entire basket of gasses, as the NDCs are meant to do as they go forward, agriculture looms even larger. And food systems and the waste associated with them loom larger, in addition to the additional co-benefits that are involved with dealing with this in a thoughtful way, and with innovation.

But as we encourage those in the forefront who go ahead, I’ll remind you about something about Norman Borlaug that maybe even Secretary Vilsack might not remember. Everyone knows, of course, his contributions to food, the dwarf wheat with the high productivity. He won the Nobel Peace Prize, and rightly so, as a pioneer and collaborator. But he was also a wrestler. In fact, he was a pioneering wrestler and is in the wrestling hall of fame. And he did not mind getting into the scrum, as you alluded to.

VILSACK: That’s why he went to the University of Minnesota, which is irritating to those of us from Iowa. (Laughter.)

VAITHEESWARAN: Exactly. So I encourage you all to get into the scrum, because you have to fight to get this done. So we wish you well. Give them a nice round of applause, everybody. (Applause.)

(END)

This is an uncorrected transcript.