Strengthening international collaboration to accelerate agricultural transitions

Agriculture is a significant source of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and food systems contribute to nearly one-third of global emissions. The 2024 Breakthrough Agenda Report – Agriculture highlights the need for stronger international collaboration to transform the sector into a more climate-resilient, low-emissions system that meets other societal and environmental goals. This report emphasizes the importance of international collaborative actions to accelerate the deployment of these technologies, recognizing that agriculture’s contribution to emissions reduction is crucial to keeping the world within 1.5°C to 2°C by the end of the century as per the Paris Agreement goals.

Livestock and fertilizer are two of the most significant contributors to agricultural emissions: hence the focus of this year’s report. However, the report acknowledges that the sector’s transformation into a resilient and lowemissions system, while catering to broader societal and environmental goals, will require systemic changes involving multiple approaches and interventions, including improvements in land management and water use, dietary shifts, and reductions in food loss and waste, as was documented in last year’s Agriculture chapter of the Breakthrough Agenda Report 2023 and the accompanying deep dive report into seven technological areas.