Forum Agenda

COP30 lands at a critical halfway mark: just five years remain to meet 2030 targets on hunger, deforestation, and methane. Food systems are central to all three. This makes COP30 a genuine make-or-break moment. This keynote sets out why COP30 must be remembered as the turning point–not for new pledges, but for scaling concrete solutions that restore land, build resilient and adaptive food systems, and secure equitable access to food and nutrition for all.  

Brazil feeds over a billion people and safeguards the Amazon, the planet’s largest carbon sink. As COP30 host, it aims to prove farming and forests can thrive together. This dialogue explores how forest protection, indigenous leadership, and sustainable production models can become a global blueprint for a just and nature-positive transition. 

Methane and other non–CO2 gasses are short-lived but trap far more heat than CO2. Agriculture is the largest source (livestock, rice and food loss). Cutting these now, while restoring soils and biodiversity, buys critical time against climate shocks. This interview highlights regenerative practices and innovation that reduce methane, improve soil health and reward farmers for ecosystem improvements.

From satellites that forecast droughts to sensors that cut water waste, AI and digital tools are already transforming agriculture. This panel highlights how innovation is building resilience, boosting transparency, and opening up new opportunities across food systems.

A third of the world’s food never gets eaten. It’s lost on farms, spoiled in transport, or thrown away in shops and homes. That waste drives up emissions and pushes up costs while millions go hungry. This keynote explores the most effective measures to stop food loss and waste–and how governments, companies, and farmers can accelerate them before 2030.

• How waste makes climate change worse
• Where the biggest losses happen
• The approaches already working in farms, supply chains and kitchens
• Policies and business models speeding up change

Storing carbon in soils and forest buffers can earn farmers income while restoring ecosystems. This spotlight examines emerging carbon and biodiversity-linked markets.

Farmers face rising climate shocks: droughts, floods, soil degradation and volatile yields. Agriculture already uses 70% of the world’s freshwater, and pressure is mounting. This session explores climate-smart, nature-positive practices–efficient irrigation to soil restoration, biodiversity-friendly farming, low-emission inputs, and digital tools–that protect harvests, cut emissions and restore ecosystems while supporting farmer incomes.

The agri-food sector contributes close to one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, much of it embedded in supply chains — from fertilizer use and livestock methane, to processing, cold storage, transport, and food loss. Decarbonising these supply chains is not only a climate imperative, but also a systems challenge: it requires action across production, logistics, consumption, and waste management. This discussion will focus on enhancing collaboration to tackle Scope 3 emissions, including harnessing data and traceability tools to drive accountability.

Extreme weather is the biggest threat to farm livelihoods, yet most small and medium producers in Brazil and around the world remain uninsured. A new wave of innovations, from satellite-powered parametric insurance to smarter public-private programmes, promise faster payouts and wider access. But can they scale fast enough to protect farmers as climate shocks intensify?

• Why have past models failed, and what’s different about the new breakthroughs?
• What role should governments, investors, and insurers play in scaling access?
• How can insurance be best designed to drive sustainable, climate-smart farming practices?

Scaling sustainable farming doesn’t just depend on supply, demand has to pull it through. In this interview we cover the role of retailers, brands, and consumers in making climate-smart practices the default.

• Are consumers really shifting to climate-smart choices, and how fast?
• How can retailers de-risk supply chains by backing farmer transitions?
• Where do certification and traceability add value? Where do they fall short?

From gene-edited crops to biodiversity linked sourcing and methane-cutting feed, the past year has seen a wave of innovations promising to cut emissions, regenerate land and boost yields.Which breakthroughs are ready to scale and deliver replicable benefits for climate, resilience, and nutrition?

• Which breakthroughs could transform emissions and resilience fastest?
• Judging “readiness” – farmer adoption, cost, policy approval?
• What risks (safety, equity, ethics) must be considered as we scale?

Volatile commodity prices, export bans and tariffs are amplifying food insecurity worldwide. We ask how smarter trade rules and policy coherence can protect supplies, strengthen farmer livelihoods and scale climate-resilient solutions.

• Redesigning tariffs and export rules to stabilise prices and protect vulnerable markets
• Embedding climate-smart standards and risk sharing into trade agreements
• Linking climate finance with trade corridors and infrastructure to secure food flows

Women, young farmers and indigenous communities play vital roles in food production yet face barriers to land, finance and decision-making. This session explores reforms and business models that remove those barriers and show how inclusion drives resilience and growth.

With COP30 focussed on delivering on Paris goals, we explore how food systems–from farm to fork–can be fully integrated into NDCs, linking mitigation, adaptation, and just transition goals.

Money is the make-or-break of the food transition. Trillions are needed in investment to cut emissions, protect farmers, and keep food affordable. Yet agriculture still receives less than 5% of climate finance. Without money, the transition stalls; with it, change can happen at scale. What will it take to make food systems bankable and unlock the capital that decides whether COP30 delivers real change?

Everyone agrees food systems must change. But who foots the bill? Farmers can’t carry it alone. Governments hesitate. Investors fear risk. Companies move slowly. This dialogue tackles the hard question of cost-sharing: who shoulders the bill, and what models can get money flowing fairly and fast?

• Can polluters be made to pay, or will costs fall on farmers and taxpayers?
• Are carbon and sustainability markets credible solutions or greenwash?
• What’s the single biggest barrier stopping finance today?

Climate-smart practices look different on a two-hectare family plot and a 20,000-hectare soy or cattle ranch, yet both are essential to a resilient, low-emission food future. This conversation brings together a large-scale producer and a smallholder voice to explore how they are cutting methane, restoring soils and meeting traceability demands.

Agriculture receives less than 5% of climate finance, leaving proven solutions underfunded. This dialogue spotlights catalytic finance models, such as the Agriculture Transition Fund, that turn capital into measurable results: restoring land, cutting emissions, and boosting farmer incomes.

• Which financing models are already delivering results
• How can catalytic funds de-risk investment and attract private capital
• What does success look like for farmers and investors by 2030?

Future-fit food systems must deliver for people and the planet. This closing dialogue examines how fair, transparent and deforestation-free supply chains can cut Scope 3 emissions, reward smallholders and indigenous producers, and meet rising global demand for traceability and accountability.