COP28: Innovation Commission at the Resilience Hub

Michael Kremer, chair of the Innovation Commission, participated in the event Supporting Innovation to Build Food System Resilience Across Landscapes and Waterscapes held on December 10th at the Resilience Hub at COP 28. During the event, Kremer emphasized the importance of advancements in innovation to increase smallholder’s resilience and adaptation skills for climate change and to reduce agricultural emissions. 

The event was a collaborative effort between the Innovation Commission for Climate Change, Food Security, and Agriculture and the MRR Innovation Lab at the University of California, Davis. This session served as a platform to showcase cost-effective innovations with the potential to improve the food security and climate adaptability of vulnerable farmers.

Kremer shed light on the innovation areas the Commission has identified as ready to scale up that have rigorous evidence of cost-effectiveness and can be translated into concrete actions to scale them up. Using examples from these areas, he underscored the importance of information, like improved weather forecasts and digital agriculture services, and credit in enhancing resilience among smallholder farmers. He also mentioned the forthcoming work of the commission in identifying around 15 innovations that are at earlier stages but have a high social rate of returns. Microbial fertilizer, for instance, is an innovation ready to transition that reduces the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Kremer invited governments, practitioners, innovators, researchers, and funders to actively support and invest in scaling up these high-return areas.

The event also presented the opportunity to show other noteworthy innovations, including the bundling of genetic and financial technologies for resilient agriculture; people-centric innovations promoting system and diet diversification connecting land and water, like the work done in Indonesia with fishery communities; and social innovations and best practices strengthening value chains in the face of climate shocks, like the work done by ASSOAB in Brazil to promote sustainable practices in indigenous lands and sustainable development reserves to cultivate and sell Brazil nuts.

Notable figures participating in the event included Dina Esposito, Assistant to the Administrator for the Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security (REFS) at USAID; Shakuntala Thilsted, Director for Nutrition, Health, and Food Security Impact Area Platform at CGIAR; Sophie Javers, Global Engagement Manager at MRR Lab; and Keivan Hamoud, Director of Projects at the Associação dos Agropecuários de Beruri (Beruri Farmers Association, ASSOAB-Brazil).

Click here to watch the video of the event.