I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Nordic Countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway). The Nordic countries [of the EU] align with the EU statement.
We welcome the report of the 29th Session of the Committee on Agriculture. Among its findings and recommendations, we wish to highlight the following three points:
Firstly, on matters related to climate and natural resources:
We welcome FAO’s work for the transformation of food systems to support food production in the context of climate change and biodiversity, in accordance with the commitments made in the Paris Agreement and the Biodiversity Plan.
We commend the role FAO played in this regard at COP29 and call on FAO to scale up efforts to foster integrated action, finance and private sector investments for building climate-smart and resilient agri-food systems.
(We need to address biodiversity loss and climate change without threatening food production. We need more climate finance for adaptation, and more action to improve soil health and quality fertilizer, following up on the Nairobi Summit.)
The transition towards a sustainable bioeconomy, across agrifood systems and the forestry sector, is key to a more sustainable management of natural resources. In particular we wish to highlight FAO’s work on enhancing the contribution of forestry to bioeconomy, where the sustainable use of the renewable forest resources contributes to replacing fossil resources and to welfare of societies, to human beings and to forests themselves.
Furthermore, we wish to highlight the proposed Voluntary Code of Conduct on the Sustainable Use and Management of Plastics in Agriculture as an important step towards a more sustainable agricultural sector. We regret that the 29th session of COAG did not adopt the guidelines and encourage further work to reach an ambitious document.
Secondly, we welcome the recommendations on emerging issues of FAO’s report on the Status of Women in Agrifood Systems.
The report demonstrates that progress in gender equality and women’s empowerment in agrifood systems is possible if policies, programmes and investments are designed to tackle the multidimensional challenges faced by women farmers.
We note the importance of collecting gender statistics and data, using rigorous research. We encourage co-operation with IFAD, WFP, CGIAR and others to improve the situation for women farmers, many of whom are smallholders struggling to feed their families.
Thirdly, chair, we welcome FAOs work in Scaling up One Health through an integrated approach, strengthening the collaboration and partnership of the Quadripartite on One Health in line with the mandate of each organization.
We welcome the decision to set up an open-ended Working Group for a Conference Resolution on AMR and look forward to an open and transparent process. Prudent and responsible use of antibiotics in agrifood systems is essential to reduce AMR.
We recall the guidance of the COAG Sub-Committee on Livestock, highlighting the need to gradually phase out of the use of antimicrobial growth promoters (AGPs), starting with the medically important AGPs, in line with the standards, guidance and recommendations of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and the Codex Alimentarius.
With these comments, the Nordic countries endorse the recommendations from COAG.