In this blog post, ProVeg UN Youth Board Member Alexandra Wenzel talks about her experience attending COP28, the annual UN climate change conference, which took place in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, in December.
In December, I attended COP28 as a member of the ProVeg UN Youth Board. After months of calls led by Juliette Tronchon, Senior Policy and Public Affairs Specialist at ProVeg International, to prepare for the Food4Climate Pavilion, I was looking forward to meeting everyone in person. I was also anticipating a lot of events packed into a short time – meetings of past and present colleagues, supporting the pavilion, following the negotiations, and preparing debriefs.
COP27 in 2022 featured the first food-related pavilions, with the launch of both the Food Systems Pavilion and ProVeg’s Food4Climate Pavilion. This year, at COP28, the conversation around food gathered momentum, particularly in the context of the first Food, Agriculture and Water Day. And, of course, our Food4Climate Pavilion was back in full force, with a range of great conversations and events (see more here). My personal favourite event was ‘The Great Food Debate’, which brought together stakeholders from animal agriculture and the plant-based sector.
Having previously attended international conferences where there were minimal plant-based options available, I was looking forward to attending COP28, where the catering focus was on sustainable, vegetarian and vegan meals. This is largely due to the success of the Global Youth Call for Climate-Friendly Food at COP28, launched by Food@COP, YOUNGO (the youth constituency of the UNFCCC), and ProVeg International, which demanded climate-friendly catering. After the launch of the first campaign at COP26, the 2023 campaign hit the mark, with two thirds of the COP28 being vegetarian and vegan!
In between events, I was able to check out this success by eating at the plant-based food truck park, an outdoor dining area with five food trucks offering dishes that ranged from bánh mì to vegan chicken burgers. Honestly, I would have been happy for the conference to go on longer just to eat more of the food! While eating, I read the Safe & Just report, the Plant Based Treaty’s donut-economics approach to the food system, which featured contributions from Youth Board member, Xananine Cavillo.
While there was a lot of exciting progress happening both inside and outside the negotiations, the strong presence of lobbyists at COP (2,456 and counting!) was a hot topic this year, with the leaking of documents on how animal-agriculture lobbyists intended to market animal-based protein as ‘sustainable’.
Despite some of the disappointments of COP28, it was also inspiring to be surrounded by so many people who are working for plant-based, sustainable, and inclusive food systems. Leaving the conference venue, I felt tired but also energised, knowing that, even though we are not where we need to be with our climate goals or our approach to agriculture, there are viable solutions available and millions of people around the world pushing for a better future.
Now that the conference is over, it’s time to start getting real with our 1.5 degree temperature goal. And in order to do this, we need to make sure that our food systems are both sustainable and fair – for the health of our planet and all who live on it.