COP28 FAO Pavilion Ministerial Roundtable: Climate Change and Food Security: The Role of Nuclear Science and Technology Opening Statement

COP28

FAO Pavilion

Ministerial Roundtable: Climate Change and Food Security:

The Role of Nuclear Science and Technology

Opening Statement

By

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

 

1 December 2023

 

My esteemed colleague Rafael Grossi, IAEA Director-General

Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Colleagues,

 

I am pleased to welcome you to this Ministerial Roundtable on Climate Change and Food Security: The Role of Nuclear Science and Technology.

 

Thank you to DG Grossi and the IAEA for this opportunity to highlight our decades of partnership and game-changing work through innovation and collaboration.

 

Science and innovation are crucial elements of my vision for FAO.

 

They are instrumental in building a better future and needed more than ever to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

 

Science and technology are critical for climate responsive policies, for informed decision-making on risk, for effective climate action and for agrifood systems transformation.

 

This is why FAO’s first-ever Science and Innovation Strategy directs the Organization’s efforts to strengthen the role of science and innovation across our work and reinforces FAO’s Strategy on Climate Change.

 

Nuclear sciences and biotechnologies are an important strand of this work.

 

These disciplines can contribute to adaptation, develop improved crop varieties, enhance animal productivity, and control insect pests and animal diseases.

 

Nuclear sciences can also support flexible, responsive, and predictive food safety mechanisms to effectively deal with the impacts of the climate crisis.

 

In addition, nuclear sciences can provide tools to evaluate the effects of the climate crisis, develop forecast models and improve greenhouse gas emission monitoring as a basis for mitigation actions.

 

This is especially important for farmers and small producers who are particularly vulnerable.

 

Nationally Determined Contributions identify agriculture as the sector most impacted by loss and damage. And, at the same time, agrifood systems emit a third of greenhouse gas emissions globally.

 

FAO and the IAEA have been working together through the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture since 1964.

 

The Joint Centre and its laboratories have been developing and transferring nuclear techniques and biotechnologies to our Members to support the transformation of agrifood systems, and in the fight against climate change.

 

The FAO and IAEA partnership is an excellent example of interagency cooperation in the UN family.

 

In fact, we recently launched a new initiative – Atoms4Food – to further assist Members fight hunger and malnutrition through tailored solution packages of nuclear and related technologies.

 

And we look forward to collaborating with partners to implement this initiative.

 

It is critical that we invest in science and innovation to achieve better production, better nutrition, better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

 

Let me conclude by thanking all the participants in today’s roundtable and I look forward to the outcomes of your discussions.

 

Thank you.