The mid-year UN climate negotiations wrapped up last week. From June 16 to 26, government representatives met in Bonn, Germany, to advance global climate action under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These talks help set the stage for COP30—the next major climate summit—taking place in Brazil later this year.
The World Federation for Animals was at the Bonn talks to advocate for animal welfare as essential to climate action. This year, there were two key agenda items: the Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on climate action on agriculture and food security and the Global Goal on Adaptation.
Andrea Perez from Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and Sebastian Osborn from Mercy for Animals unpack for us the outcomes from these negotiations and what it means for our collective advocacy.
Climate action in food systems
By Andrea Perez, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF)
Under the Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on implementation of climate action on agriculture and food security, the UNFCCC Secretariat organised a one-day workshop on “systemic and holistic approaches to implementing climate action in agriculture, food systems, and food security”.
Ahead of the workshop, WFA submitted recommendations to the UNFCCC Secretariat on behalf of its 70+ organisations. We had called for the workshop to be action-oriented and to highlight how improving animal welfare and shifting toward more plant-rich diets can deliver co-benefits for climate, biodiversity, and public health.
During the workshop, I had the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Research and Independent Non-Governmental Organizations (RINGO) constituency, in which I am a member through Compassion in World Farming. I underscored the value of integrated, science-based approaches to addressing climate change across the food system, from production to consumption. These approaches can deliver co-benefits for climate resilience, livelihoods, animal and human health, food security, and biodiversity. I encouraged participants to support solutions that protect the future of people, animals, and the planet, recognising the interconnections among all three.
A second workshop will take place at the UN climate talks in June 2026. In the meantime, the UNFCCC Secretariat will prepare a summary report on this first session. That means there’s still an opportunity for animal protection organisations to shape the conversation going forward.
Following the workshop, governments adopted a decision calling on the UNFCCC Secretariat to make the next session more interactive, using formats like world cafés and breakout groups, and to ensure sufficient time for discussion and exchange among participants.
In addition, Parties and organisations are invited to share activities and implementation efforts through the Sharm el-Sheikh online portal to help identify good practice in this sector. For us, it offers a space to spotlight how animal welfare and sustainable food systems can work together to deliver better climate outcomes.
Why does this process matter for animal advocates?
Food systems transformation is central to climate action, and animal welfare must be part of that transformation. Industrial animal agriculture contributes significantly to emissions, land degradation, and biodiversity loss. Yet current climate discussions often ignore this. The Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work gives us a window to push for policy coherence and to advocate for food systems that are not only sustainable but also humane.
Measurements of adaptation to climate change
By Sebastian Osborn, Mercy For Animals
At COP28 in 2023, countries adopted the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience, establishing 11 global targets to guide the achievement of the Global Goal on Adaptation. One of these targets is on food and agriculture.
To operationalise this framework, the two-year UAE–Belém work programme was launched to develop indicators for tracking progress. From an initial pool of roughly 9,000 indicators, groups of technical experts consolidated the list to 490 indicators before the Bonn session (SB62).
Mercy For Animals, along with other members of the Food and Climate Action Group, has been advocating for indicators that recognise the role of sustainable food consumption in adaptation. These include indicators tracking:
- Availability of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts
- Overconsumption of resource-intensive foods (animal products)
- Food waste reduction
- Climate-informed nutrition planning, such as consideration of climate change in national food-based dietary guidelines
During informal consultations at SB62, Parties emphasised the need to significantly reduce the number of indicators from the current list of 490 to no more than 100 and provided more detail on the types of indicators to be included in the final list, as well as next steps, including an expert meeting and a workshop. After these, Parties will consider a final list of indicators from technical experts to be adopted at COP30.
Why does this process matter for animal advocates?
The indicators adopted to monitor progress towards adaptation will not only define what governments see as important outcomes for a resilient food system, among other areas, but also be influential on other actors, including financial bodies and businesses. If indicators examine only how much food is produced, for example, this would create a risk that important food consumption issues are underaddressed. Reducing food waste and shifting to more plant-based diets are critical not only for ensuring food security under increasing climate impacts but also for reducing the number of animals in the food system and the impact of food production on wild animals. Parties have shown support for indicator options that adequately cover food consumption-related issues. In the coming months, it will be important to ensure that these issues receive enough focus among the wide range of other politically salient issues implicated by a global framework for monitoring adaptation.
