The Agricultural Sector: A Victim and Actor of Climate Change
The agricultural sector, both a victim and an actor of climate change, is facing a silent crisis: a massive financing deficit to ensure its ecological transition. While agriculture and food systems are responsible for more than a third of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), the financial flows allocated to them remain far below needs.
According to the book "Agriculture and Food Systems in the World in the Face of Climate Change", it is necessary to mobilize between $300 and $350 billion per year to make agricultural and food systems sustainable. However, global climate financing, although increasing — $115.9 billion in 2022 according to the OECD — allocates only a fraction to agriculture, forestry, and fishing: 18% for adaptation, 4% for mitigation, and 13% for both objectives combined, totaling only $10.4 billion.
The Forgotten Ones of Climate Finance
Small-scale farmers, who produce an essential part of the world's food, remain largely excluded from financing mechanisms. In 2021, only 2% of international public climate financing was allocated to them. These farmers, often located in Southern countries, are considered high-risk and unprofitable by investors. As a result, 95% of the funds they receive come from the public sector, an insufficient source in the face of climate and economic challenges.
Attracting Private Finance: The New Battle
Given the insufficiency of public financing, the dominant response involves the financialization of climate change. The idea is to use public funds to "de-risk" private investments, particularly through innovative financial instruments. Blended finance, or mixed financing, is one of the most promoted examples. Initiatives such as AgriFI (European Union) or the Agri3 fund (UNEP and Rabobank) use development aid as a lever to attract private capital to sustainable agriculture.
Another approach is voluntary carbon offset markets, based on agroforestry or regenerative agriculture projects, which generate carbon credits. However, these approaches remain controversial: the agricultural sector is often considered too risky, and projects are too technocratic, struggling to include small-scale producers or guarantee a lasting impact.
Towards a More Just Climate Finance
The challenge today is to ensure equitable and coordinated climate finance, capable of integrating the specific needs of Southern countries and rural communities. The workshop of the quadrennial common initiative of Sharm el-Sheikh on agriculture (2025) should indeed deepen discussions around access to financing and means of implementation.
If the promise of $100 billion per year was finally reached in 2022, experts insist on the need to review the targeting of these funds. Strengthening scientific cooperation, consolidating national institutions, and reforming trade and investment rules appear as urgent priorities.
In the face of the climate emergency, the transformation of food systems can no longer rely on isolated projects or short-term logic. Bridging the "financial gap" is not just a matter of capital: it is an essential condition for building a just, inclusive, and sustainable agricultural transition.
