Integrating food systems into the international climate law and policy framework

While responsible for nearly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, food systems long remained peripheral to the legal and political architecture of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This article outlines the policy shifts that have led food systems to become increasingly central to the UNFCCC and its Conference of the Parties (COP) framework. We first examine how, from COP28 in Dubai to COP30 in Belém, food systems have emerged as a testing ground for integrating ecological integrity, social justice and climate governance. We then explore how recent COP-related developments, including the UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, the FAO Global Roadmap for Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) without Breaching the 1.5°C Threshold and the Alliance of Champions, have started to reshape the contours of international climate law by bringing food, land and biodiversity into core negotiation tracks. Nevertheless, these developments remain tentative: binding commitments are scarce, climate finance flows remain inequitable, and most Nationally Determined Contributions have so far tended to address food-related emissions and vulnerabilities in a partial and uneven manner, rather than integrating them systematically. COP30 confirmed both the growing visibility and the persistent fragility of the food-systems agenda within the UNFCCC. While the Belém outcomes consolidated some procedural progress, particularly on adaptation and human-centred climate action, they stopped short of positioning food systems as a coherent and enforceable pillar of international climate governance.