While negotiations go on to align national climate pledges at COP25, many civil society organisations have successfully brought to light the need to focus beyond oil and energy at this COP. This can be seen in the many discussions on systemic change and food system transformation, whose number has gone up exponentially since previous years. Here are a few highlights of the events at COP25 this week:

1. Transformative Climate Resilient Pathways for Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems and Diets: A side event on Day 1, this event was a panel discussion with many interesting perspectives. Panelists included Ruth Nyambura from Global Forest Coalition, Raphael Podselver from ProVeg International, Dr. Ming Nan Lin from the Tzu Chi Dalin Hospital, moderated by Dr. Cristina Tirado, UCLA institute of Environment and Sustainability. Discussions involved both, problems as they exist today and potential solutions that can improve access to nutritious food as well as improved public health.
2. Press Conference on Healthy and Sustainable diets: ProVeg International held a press conference on the topic of healthy and sustainable diets, wherein ProVeg International, 50by40, SHE and the Tzu Chi foundation spoke to the immediate need to shift and cut our consumption and production patterns away from industrial animal agriculture to greener alternatives.
3. Food Systems Dialogue:  An International dialogue series looking to build innovation and resilience in food systems – the Food Systems Dialogue was moderated by David Nabarro, the chair of the Nature Based Solutions Coalition at the United Nations. An interesting event with brainstorming and group discussions, participants came up with both time tested and innovative solutions to fix our current food system,  through realigning subsidies, adopting crop diversity and other resilience practices, as well as bringing in blended finance through Private Public Partnerships to provide investment, insurance and capacity to the farming ecosystem.
4. Special Report on Climate and Land, IPCC and SBSTA: Receiving time on the official agenda of the event, the event on the IPCC report panel discussion accepted and prescribed the necessity of a shift towards sustainable diets to curb the ongoing climate crisis and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.