ProVeg’s UN Advocacy Team had a busy time in June, spreading the Diet Change Not Climate Change message at two high-level UN climate conferences in Stockholm and Bonn. ProVeg seized the occasions to network with influential stakeholders, host policy discussions, and advocate for a shift towards plant-centred diets and food systems. Both events are key stops on the road towards this year’s COP27 UN Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. 

CELEBRATING UN CLIMATE ACTION IN STOCKHOLM 

From 2-3 June, the ProVeg UN Advocacy team attended the Stockholm +50 celebrations in the Swedish capital. The event commemorated the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment and celebrated 50 years of global environmental action. The ProVeg team used the occasion to network with high-level stakeholders, ranging from business leaders and youth organisations to UN staff members and NGOs. Juliette Tronchon, ProVeg’s Policy and Public Affairs Specialist, took the opportunity to deliver an intervention (seen in the link at 2:33:20) that asked to include plant-based diets and food systems in global climate negotiations.

Global youth advocates from the Stockholm +50 Youth Task Force joined ProVeg in the call for food-systems change. They delivered a list of key recommendations to be implemented after Stockholm +50, including a shift towards more plant-based diets.

ProVeg participates in Global Youth Food Workshops

During the recent Earth Week, ProVeg’s Lana Weidgenant travelled to Nairobi and Naivasha in Kenya for the Act4Food Act4Change workshop, which gathered young people who are active in food-systems work from over 20 different countries around the world. Act4Food Act4Change is a global campaign led by young people that mobilises the power of youth to call for a global food system that provides everyone with access to safe, affordable, and nutritious diets, while simultaneously protecting nature, tackling climate change, and promoting human rights.

ADVANCING PLANT-BASED IN BONN 

A couple of days later, the ProVeg team participated in the latest edition of the Bonn Climate Conference, also known as the ‘UN Intersessionals’, in order to push forward plant-based diets as a key climate-mitigation and adaptation strategy. The team engaged with delegates from all over the world, and closely followed the developments of the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, the UN’s main forum for negotiations on agriculture. 

Together with our partners, the ProVeg Advocacy team hosted a successful side event exploring how governments can use the potential of plant protein to build more resilient food systems. They also organised a press conference to explain why governments should recognise plant-based eating as one of the most effective ways to tackle the climate crisis. To make sure that policymakers get the message, ProVeg put up Diet Change Not Climate Change posters around Bonn, championing the transition towards plant-centred food systems.

Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) 2022

In May, the 50by40 UNFCCC Action Group, co-chaired by ProVeg International and Humane Society International, submitted key recommendations for an urgent shift towards sustainable food systems to the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA). By adopting the KJWA as a landmark decision, COP23, held in Bonn in 2017, recognised the role of agriculture in tackling climate change.

GETTING READY FOR COP27 

Both Stockholm +50 and the Bonn Climate Conference are important stops on the road to the next UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), taking place in Egypt in November. After 27 years, there have still been no substanital discussions at COP about the role that animal agriculture plays in environmental destruction and climate change. ProVeg is determined to change this and is actively working to put plant-based on this year’s COP agenda. With this in mind, the UN Advocacy team is organising a Food4Climate Pavilion at the Climate Conference in order to facilitate constructive exchanges. 

To learn more about our campaign and follow our future plans, please sign up for the Diet Change Not Climate Change campaign and take a look at the website. If you want to have an impact on an individual level, take the DCNCC pledge and talk to your friends and family about the impact of our diets on the climate and environment.

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Let’s include everyone: Bring plant-based milk to EU schools