COP25 Side Event: SDG 2 – Linking Technological Innovation and Climate Change Actions for a World Free of Hunger, Malnutrition and Poverty

COP25 Side Event: SDG 2 – Linking Technological Innovation and Climate Change Actions for a World Free of Hunger, Malnutrition and Poverty

Madrid, Spain

12 December 2019

 

I’m delighted to be here because I was a professor, and I want to address some of the wonderful questions you have already asked. We are promoting this Side Event because we want to use innovation as leverage to draw attention to all the key players including farmers. Farmers are our utmost key players.

First, innovation comes from the government office. Government office controls their policies, which navigate in the direction of food security and production and the environment. So ministers are key persons. You have to investigate different sectors, different concerns, different policies to promote a balance between environment and preservation and food security and farmers interest. Farmers are not paying for the environment. It should be beneficial for the environment. That’s essential for your policy.

Second, of course as scientist, you need to find a digital approach, which is an innovative way to offer a new approach with new technology, new products, new chemicals and new fertilizers. Products need to have less environmental pollution, less residue. You can’t stop the application of fertilizer. Otherwise we will have less one third of food supply, while we will have a 40 percent increase of people on this planet. We have to be realistic for this planet. We have to not only talk about climate issues, but we have to be modest.

Third, we need coherence, collectively, from a public policy, private engagement, civil society, and farmers. Farmers are important because they are the last to implement it. No matter your policy, technology, no matter your new idea, who is the real implementer? Farmers. No matter if they are small farmers, or big farmers, you have even corporation farmers. Farmers should be getting A-grade services, technology, financial services and infrastructure. To be environmentally neutral, you need new infrastructure for broadband because we are now in the digital world. And farmers should not be left behind in the digital world. All the rural areas should be accessible to the digital world. Who is the last one to take care of the responsibility, not you, not me, it’s farmers. So we have to empower farmers, globally, not only from OECD countries but also from, small island states, land locked and least developed countries.

That is our shared international responsibility. FAO needs to play the role of coordination to help our Member Countries build up platforms, for consultation policy, new technology, and also to disseminate new information. That’s why I came to be Director-General. We started on the 1st December a digital FAO, please visit FAO’s new website! You can get promotion, involvement, products, new ideas. This is fantastic. I hope you can use FAO’s website for your new way of doing business.

Some people are willing to have a new idea to push governments in relation to all SDGs. For all SDGs, the governments play a crucial role. Not the UN system. UN system is a coordinator. It is a facilitator. But the implementers, the responsible people, are the Ministry of Education, Environment, Finance, Science and Technology and others. So I strongly encourage all the members to have strong coordination. You need the dialogue among ministers. Different countries have different systems. Some have vice-premier, others prime minister or president or leading ministers, it depends. But I strongly encourage all Member Countries to have coordination. That’s a way we can scale-up, speed up SDG performance. Innovation is not only innovation of science and development. It’s an innovation of policy, it’s an innovation of approach, innovation of doing business. To innovate, first unleash your mind-set. If everybody thinks the same way as you do, there is no future. So let’s do it together in an innovative way.

Thank you.