Labworx

The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate) is a collaborative initiative spearheaded by the UAE and the USA to tackle the twin challenges of food security and climate change. Working alongside over 140 governmental and non-governmental partners, the scheme is aiming to raise significant amounts of money for climate-smart agriculture and innovative food systems investment.

To that end, AIM for Climate recently announced that it was doubling its investment target by 2025, with the new goal $8 billion instead of $4 billion. The monies will go towards investigating new ways that technology can be deployed to optimise resource consumption and maximise crop yields, all the while conserving biodiversity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Twin challenges

With the Earth’s population expected to surpass 10 billion within the next 40 years, the demand for food supplies will increase sharply in the near future. At the same time, the agricultural industry is already responsible for a significant proportion of methane and carbon emissions, making it one of the biggest polluting sectors in the world.

As a result, AIM for Climate was established at the COP26 summit in Glasgow last year to try and raise funds which can address both challenges. Led by one of the world’s biggest agricultural producers (the USA) and one of its most food-insecure states (the UAE), the project initially earmarked a target of $4 billion over the next five years – but that figure has since been doubled to $8 billion.

Funding innovation

Governments comprise the most essential partners of the AIM for Climate initiative, since they are able to provide the lion’s share of the financial clout in the shape of public investment. However, businesses, private donors and NGOs also have a part to play in funding the research and development needed to overcome food security and climate change issues.

Meanwhile, the private sector is also imperative in this process as it is likely to be the beneficiary of the investment and the source of the innovation. New and exciting technologies, such as agricultural drones, vertical farming procedures and high-precision tools and techniques can also help to minimise resource consumption, safeguard the natural world and protect the environment, all the while still producing enough food to feed the planet.

Looking to the future

Given that climate scientists believe we are approaching a tipping point with regard to the effects of global warming, it’s imperative that action is taken urgently. That’s even more salient when the spiralling global population is taken into account, since hunger and famine are only likely to become more widespread with more mouths to feed.

“Farmers around the world benefit every day from climate-smart agriculture innovation. However, more must be done,” explains Jaime Adams, a senior official at the US Department for Agriculture. “We are at a crossroads facing the challenges of ending global hunger and addressing the climate crisis. Together, we can do more, and agriculture must be part of the solution.”

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