News & Views: Bracing for El Niño - how farmers, food banks and cities are building climate resilience

In this edition: Spanish farmers are tracking soil health to prepare for less predictable harvests; a food bank in Argentina is turning market surplus into meals and jobs; and a shared platform on zero waste is making circularity easier to adopt. Also: the Action Agenda events programme for COP31.

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As El Niño intensifies, the race is on to build more resilient food systems

In a world already grappling with climate extremes, El Niño is adding another layer of uncertainty to the global food system. Shifting rainfall patterns are raising the risk of drought in some regions and flooding in others. For millions of people, that will mean less food and higher prices.

The UN World Food Programme estimates that El Niño could push at least 49 million more people into acute food insecurity by the end of 2027, taking the total across 45 vulnerable countries to 274 million – a 22 percent increase. Latin America and the Caribbean could see the sharpest rise, at nearly 50 percent, while southern and eastern Africa could see more than 18 million additional people affected.

Food systems generate a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet 1.3 billion tonnes of food, a third of what is produced, is lost or wasted every year. But resilience to climate shocks is not built in the middle of a crisis. It is shaped long before the next harvest, by how farmers manage their soils, how communities share resources and how much of the food we already produce reaches people’s tables.

That is where collaboration matters. In Spain’s Navarra region, farmers are pooling machinery and measuring soil health together. In Argentina, a food bank is partnering with a local market to rescue surplus produce and create jobs. Both show how resilience can be built from the soil to the table.

Ahead of COP31, this newsletter edition explores the collaborations across the Marrakech Partnership and the Global Climate Action Agenda which are turning climate vulnerabilities into resilience – including healthy soils, zero waste cities and zero-emission freight.

Healthy soil management: Spain’s answer to less predictable harvests

In Spain’s northern region of Navarra, cereal farmers saw production fall 13 percent this year after intense heatwaves and a dry spell in June and July. Navarra 360, a €2.5 million initiative by EIT Food, is helping farmers prepare for the next season. It works with 38 farmers across 5,000 hectares, using 15 indicators to track soil health, biodiversity, water and climate.

Thirty-eight farms are currently participating in the programme, and are sharing machinery to cut costs. As part of the Action Agenda’s plan to accelerate healthy soil management, the approach is being adapted in Poland and will publish results after 2027.

| Read more

In Rosario, Argentina, Nico Lopez is saving food and creating jobs

At dawn in Rosario’s Mercado de Productores, Nico Lopez, a former waste picker, greets vendors and asks for produce they can’t sell. He works for RecupeBAR, a programme run by Banco de Alimentos Rosario, which was set up with the city government and the market itself.

Since 2018 it has recovered more than 1 million kilograms of fresh fruit and vegetables for people facing hunger, and it now employs 14 people who once worked informally at the city landfill.

Backed by The Global FoodBanking Network, an Action Agenda partner, the food bank has added new trucks and a freezing facility. For Nico, the work offers stability, friendship and purpose. His work is tackling food waste as well as improving people’s lives.

| Read his story

COP31: Global Climate Action Agenda events programme now available

The full events programme for the Global Climate Action Agenda at COP31 is now online. Organized around the Agenda’s six axes and building on the momentum generated by hundreds of initiatives through the Plans to Accelerate Solutions, events will feature flagship keynotes, showcase events, practical solutions and delivery sessions, thematic spotlights and special programming.

Action Agenda events will also be featured in other spaces, such as the Brazil Pavilion, which will bring partners together to showcase implementation progress and concrete results, and strengthen collaboration across the Action Agenda’s six Axes.

| Explore the programme

COP31: Concept notes and invitation letters now available for Action Agenda priority topics

The incoming COP31 Presidency has published concept notes and invitation letters for each of its ten Action Agenda priority areas. Each concept note sets out the objectives, delivery pillars, governance and partners. It also comes with a letter from COP31 President-Designate, H.E. Mr. Murat Kurum, inviting governments, organizations and other stakeholders to get involved, along with details on how to express interest. Take a look to better map where your own work could plug into the Presidency’s priorities.

From Yokohama to Nairobi, a shared platform on zero waste is making circularity easier to adopt

Ahead of COP31, Climate High-Level Champion Samed Ağırbaş is rolling out the Istanbul Platform on Zero Waste for Climate Action. The platform acts as a hub connecting existing initiatives, like the city of Yokohama, Japan, which has cut waste by nearly 50 percent since 2001, and the Zero Waste Districts Initiative, which is reducing waste in nine districts across four countries.

Ağırbaş explains why waste is a climate issue, deeply embedded within the Action Agenda: “Zero Waste is a culture of life that embraces a circular economy, accelerates innovation, creates jobs, improves livelihoods, and promotes climate action.”

| Read the full interview here

How freight corridors are driving the shift to zero-emission trucking

Stephanie Kodish, Senior Global Director at Catalyst Mobility, says zero emission freight corridors are scaling across continents, backing the COP31 Presidency’s electrification push, known as “35 by 35”.

Examples include e-Dutra, an 800-kilometre roundtrip route between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, piloted at COP30 last year, which is targeting 1,000 carbon-free truck trips a day by 2030. Corridors are now in development across six continents under the Global Green Road Corridor Initiative, which is part of the Action Agenda.

| Spend five minutes with Stephanie Kodish

Dan Ioschpe: “Whoever starts first is in a favorable position”

Last month, Dan Ioschpe, COP30 Climate High-Level Champion spoke about the trends shaping climate action across transport, energy business, and cities.

According to Ioschpe, when solutions are available, in supply and competitively priced, adoption follows.

He points to progress across the Action Agenda: the USD 43 billion in clean industrial projects that hit final investment decisions in 2026, 140 sustainable aviation fuel projects across 31 countries, and the “Greening Cities to Beat the Heat” plan which has grown to nearly 300 cities.

| Read the full interview here

In case you missed it

• The new generation of national climate plans (or “NDCs”), as highlighted in the 2026 NDC synthesis report published by UN Climate Change on 27 October, shows how climate action is becoming more deeply embedded across economies and societies. Increasingly, NDCs involve local and regional authorities, civil society, and the private sector in planning, implementing and monitoring climate action. Reflecting this growing whole-of-society approach, 98 per cent of Parties to the Paris Agreement report engaging a number of these stakeholders in implementing their NDCs, up from 70 per cent in previous NDCs. Read the report and news article here.

• In September, the Climate High-Level Champions brought practical implementation experience from the Action Agenda into the UNFCCC Mitigation Ambition and Implementation Work Programme through two submissions showcasing solutions, success stories and lessons learned from across sectors, including industrial decarbonization, clean energy, sustainable transport and climate finance. The contributions helped inform discussions at the 8th Global Dialogue and Investment-Focused Event in Australia and provided inputs on the continuation, functioning and effectiveness of the work programme. The event also featured opening video remarks from the COP 30 Climate High-Level Champion, Dan Ioschpe, highlighting the importance of accelerating implementation through the Action Agenda.

• Having a climate plan can save companies money. A study of 8000 companies by the International Transition Plan Network, an Action Agenda partner, found that lenders charge less to businesses that clearly set out how they will move to a low-carbon economy, with interest rates almost 12 per cent lower on average. For a typical company in the study, that works out to about USD 10 million a year in interest savings.

• At the Pre-COP meetings in Fiji and Tuvalu, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell highlighted that small islands have more at stake than most as El Niño supercharges climate costs. He urged COP31 to speed up affordable finance and deliver real-world results.

• The RAIZ initiative, which is part of the Action Agenda, unveiled an upgraded mapping tool that helps countries pinpoint the degraded cropland and pastureland most at risk, so restoration investment goes where it delivers the greatest benefit. Using Brazil and Mongolia as case studies, it will be developed further with national partners.

• Climate Policy Radar launched the Nature Policy Library: an open, searchable collection of 3,000+ nature-focused laws, policies, and UN submissions from every country in the world. It lets governments, negotiators, and researchers explore how countries are tackling biodiversity loss, making it easier to see what's in place, what's missing, and where plans align or pull apart.

• Last month, Climate Week NYC offered a glimpse of what a more practical phase of climate action can look like: not one breakthrough, but networks of cities, companies, investors and governments ensuring individual solutions scale and drive one another.

• In Yucatán, water resilience is being shaped by the women who know these challenges firsthand. Through the Women’s Water House, more than 80 Mayan women have been trained in water stewardship, climate action, finance and cooperative governance, while women-led committees are helping manage local water systems and access to purified water.

Mark your calendar

• 15th International Forum on Energy for Sustainable Development, Xi'an, China, 3 – 6 November

• UNFCCC COP 31, Antalya, Türkiye, 9 – 20 November

• 2026 United Nations Water Conference, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 8 – 10 December