Open Letter for Soil Heath - To the CEO of COP26 -

Please contact Emma Crasnier (emma@soilheroesfoundation.com) from Soil Heroes Foundation if you are want to co-sign the open letter below.

Background

It may not be unfamiliar to you that at the end of next week is the start of the COP26 conference.

At COP21 in Paris in 2015, participating countries have committed to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) setting out how they would reduce their emissions.

Each country will bring their updated plans for reducing emissions and combatting climate change to COP26. But so far, the NDCs have fallen far short of the mark in reaching the 1.5°C target. COP26 needs to be the moment that governments commit to going further to secure a safer future for the planet and for us all.

Soil Health ought to be central in the plans for all NDCs; as a means for sequestering carbon whilst also producing food on the land in their country. But it isn’t.

Currently, the COP26 agenda only refers to “building resilient agriculture”, “moving to sustainable agriculture and land use” or “encouraging countries to include nature-based solutions in their climate plans”, but there is no precise definition about what that means concretely and no mention of the expected tangible outcomes.

We have written an Open Letter, addressed to the President and CEO of COP26, demanding that they include building soil health and transitioning to regenerative agriculture on a global scale higher up on the agenda of the conference. We will release this Open Letter on our social media the day before the start of the conference.

While attention towards climate change adaptation and mitigation solutions will be at an all-time high, this is our opportunity to make our voice heard.

We are mobilizing our expert and extensive network of partners and like-minded organizations to co-sign this open letter.