Ministers and secretaries of Agriculture from 30 countries in the Americas meet this week in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, to discuss the strategic role of the region's agricultural sector in addressing climate change.

The ministerial meeting, coordinated by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), is preparatory to the Conference of the Parties (COP 27) to be held in November in Egypt. The meeting began on Thursday morning (22) and will be closed on Friday (23).

Representatives of multilateral credit organizations and global climate conservation financing funds also participate in the IICA event. The meeting is expected to identify priority areas for:

• Climate action, taking into account the unique role of regional agriculture in leading global efforts in this area;
• Benefits to be generated in terms of food and nutrition security;
• Poverty reduction;
• Sustainability;
• Environmental conservation;
• Water management.

Climate: meeting before COP 27

COP 27 will be attended by the 197 signatory countries to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in which agriculture will play a strong role. In San José, in addition to ministerial discussions on the challenges and opportunities for regional agriculture in the current context, the multilateral financial perspectives of the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and the UNFCCC mechanisms related to agriculture and what its objectives are will be presented.

Source: Canal Rural