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Speakers
Session Chair
H.H. Princess Mashael Al-Shalan, Founding Partner, AEON Strategy
Keynotes
Prof. Ibrahim Hoteit, Professor of Earth Science and Engineering, KAUST
Prof. Kenneth Strzepek, Research Scientist at the Joint Program and CGCS, MIT & Adjunct Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government & Nonresident Senior Research Fellow, UNU-WIDER & Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado Boulder
Dr. Mari Luomi, Research Fellow, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC)
Ms. Leena Al Olaimy, Founder and CEO, Symbaoisis (Trillion Trees Fund)
Dr. Khaled Alabdulkader, CEO of National Center for Vegetation Cover & Combatting Desertification (NCVC)
Key messages
1. Climate changes will have a multiplier effect for food security in the KSA, both in terms of impact of domestic food production and impact on import supply; therefore, siloed interventions to improve food security will be ineffective in the long-run.
2. Food trade is threatened by pandemic, maritime shipping disruptions, conflict[1], and climate change.[2] All of these factors must be accounted for in the national food importation strategy.
3. There are multiple dimensions of climate change and food security on which policies should be based: domestic sustainability, adaptation/resilience, import security and sustainability, and political commitment to climate action.[3]
4. Not only will the agricultural sector be impacted by climate change, but it is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the KSA. [4] [5]
5. The Saudi Green Initiative will have significant direct (e.g., fruit trees and plant nurseries) and indirect contributions (e.g., soil rehabilitation, carbon management, pollinator species habitats) to food security in the KSA.
Recommendations
1. Develop a future agriculture roadmap for KSA food security that includes reliable information about changing spatiotemporal climate patterns.
2. Develop a global food trade and vulnerability index for current conditions and future climate and socio-economic projections.
3. Link the efforts of the KSA National Climate Change Research Center to food security assessments and solutions.
4. Finance climate-smart agriculture and incentivize cleaner on-farm energy usage and more efficient agricultural water use.
5. Promote resilience in food importation via strengthened bilateral relations, favoring climate friendly food imports, and practicing climate-smart agro-investment.
6. Focus on domestic climate change adaptation planning and policy mainstreaming in the agricultural and food sectors.
7. Reframe the discussion from “public-private” partnerships to “public-planet” partnerships.
8. Assign higher value to natural capital in the context of food production and ecosystem rehabilitation interventions.
9. Adopt a systems thinking, portfolio approach to climate change and food security solutions.
10. Apply ecosystem interventions that ensure the success of homegrown technologies in the KSA.
[1] Ukraine and Russia were the two largest importers of grain to the KSA, 19% and 14%, respectively (World Bank WITS database).
[2] Significant reductions in yields for all imported food commodity categories (grains, rice, oilseed, milk and meat, and processed food) by 2050 are predicted as a result of climate change (FAO).
[3] KSA ranks 44 in the Global Food Security Index, and is slightly less than the global average in terms of political commitment to climate change adaptation.
[4] 200% more greenhouse gas emissions result from on-farm energy usage than other sources (e.g., livestock, fertilizers) in the KSA (FAO STAT 2022).
[5] 2.2% value-added (to GDP) of agriculture compared to share of GHG emissions from agriculture in the KSA, compared to global average of 10.0% (World Resources Institute et al., 2022, World Bank 2022).
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