Irish farmers hailed as world leaders for "bringing together food and nutrition and climate"
Exclusive: A leading WHO official says he is "a big fan of what’s happening in Ireland”, where farmers are “having to cope with climate change and environmental challenges”
Irish farmers have been praised as “leaders for the world in bringing together food and nutrition and climate” at COP29 in Baku.
World Health Organisation (WHO) special envoy and sustainable development advocate, Sir David Nabarro, hailed ongoing work in Ireland to find a “balance” between farming, protecting nature and water sources.
In an exclusive interview with the Irish Mirror during ‘Food, Agriculture and Water Day’ day at the UN climate summit, Sir Nabarro said he is optimistic Ireland will join the Alliance of Champions for food systems transformation in the future.
READ MORE: Eamon Ryan warns that Ireland could 'freeze' as he says we are 'not immune to climate change'
The Irish government signed up to the UAE food systems declaration to integrate food and agriculture into Irish climate plans ahead of COP30 - at last year’s COP conference in Dubai. But now, Sir David Nabarro says: “I feel there is a real willingness on the part of Ireland to come towards where this Alliance of Champions is.”
According to Sir Nabarro, the Alliance of Champions, which includes Brazil, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Norway and Rwanda, is transforming food systems to benefit both people and nature.
He explained: “You have to really pay attention to everything from the production through to the consumption. It means you are looking at whether farming is contributing to regeneration of the environment or whether it’s damaging the environment.
“Or whether food is enabling people to be healthier and to live longer and have healthier families. You are bringing [together] health, agriculture, the environment and women... and you also want to make sure your farming systems are attractive to younger people.”
David said he’s already “personally a big fan of what’s happening in Ireland”, where farmers are “having to cope with climate change and environmental challenges”.
“You’ve really been leaders for the world in bringing together food and nutrition and climate. There are issues, everybody in Europe is having to come to terms with the reality that there is a limit to the intensity of animal life you can keep in a particular area because if you don’t watch it, you get too much nitrate build up.
“Finding that balance is something I have seen happening in Ireland and it’s going quite nicely.”
While the Irish government is working with farmers to reduce fertiliser use, increase organic production and encourage the uptake of environmental farming schemes, countries like Denmark have gone even further. Their government has agreed a livestock emissions levy alongside 250,000 hectares of new forest planting and restoring 140,000 hectares of peatland now used for agriculture.
Danish Minister for Climate, Energy & Utilities, Lars Aagaard, told the press at the Alliance of Champions event at COP29 yesterday: “The most CO2 efficient farmers and centres will win in the future.”
Irish Climate Minister Eamon Ryan told the Irish Mirror: “We could learn a lot from countries like Denmark - similar population, similar economy, similar scale of agriculture. Agriculture has to play its part, forestry, how we manage our bogs and we won’t get there unless it’s in a way that’s good for Irish farming and brings a new generation of people to work on the land and to be paid well for it.
“We have everything to be gained by collaborating in agriculture and land use, in forestry and managing our nature.”
We will be bringing all the latest updates from the COP29 climate summit in Baku with support from Global Ireland. You can follow our environment correspondent on the ground @ShaunaReports on X/ @shaunacorr.bsky.social.
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