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COP30 Advancer - Interview with Kaveh Zahedi

COP30, the forthcoming meeting of world leaders on climate change is “an incredibly important watershed moment” for the future of agriculture, said Kaveh Zahedi, head of the climate division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Language English

Duration 4m32s

Edit Version International

Video Type Video News Release (VNR)

Date 11/06/2025

File size 600.58 MB

Unique ID UF1B6C2

Production details and shotlist

Shotlist STORY: FAO / COP30 AVANCER
TRT: 4’:33’’
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT FAO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 3 NOVEMBER 2025, ROME, ITALY / RECENT

SHOTLIST:

25 MAY, PERNAMBUCO, BRAZIL
1. Aerial shot, Ororubá Mountains’ forests
2. Top shot, Ororubá Mountains’ forests
3. Aerial shot, Ororubá Mountains’ forests

3 NOVEMBER 2025, ROME, ITALY
4. Tilt down, FAO headquarters
5. SOUNDBITE (English), Kaveh Zahedi, FAO Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment: “COP30 is an incredibly important watershed moment because I think it's the moment to reiterate how agriculture and food systems have to be an integral part of discussions on adaptation and building resilience, on loss and damage, on finance, and where that finance should be flowing on just transition. All of this has to, in one way or another, touch upon agriculture, food systems, farmers. So in that sense, it's a critical moment.”

22 MAY 2022, SUNAMGONJ, BANGLADESH
6. Wide shot, flash flood hitting rice fields
7. Med shot, farmers trying to save their harvest

MARCH-APRIL 2024, ISABELA PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES
8. Tilt down, farm impacted by El Niño-induced drought

6 MARCH 2024, DOLOW, GEDO, SOMALIA
9. Wide shot, farmer working on fields impacted by El Niño-induced drought

3 NOVEMBER 2025, ROME, ITALY
10. SOUNDBITE (English), Kaveh Zahedi, FAO Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment: “It's not about the future. It's happening right now. Climate extremes are impacting food and agriculture today. They are reducing yields. The unpredictability of the weather is making it very difficult for farmers to harvest. One extreme event undermines an entire an entire harvest.”

23 JANUARY 2025, BETHANCHOWK, KAVREPALANCHOWK, NEPAL
11. Aerial shot, wildfires at night

21-22 OCTOBER 2024, MIFTA EL KHEIR, MAURITANIA
12. Close up, wind blowing over a sand dune

12 FEBRUARY 2024, AL JAWL, ABYAN, YEMEN
13. Close up, hand examining dried soil
14. Med shot, farmer examining dried soil and looking at the sky

3 NOVEMBER 2025, ROME, ITALY
15. SOUNDBITE (English), Kaveh Zahedi, FAO Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment: “If we don't do anything about it, if the trajectory continues, the scenarios are that in some parts of the world, it's going to be impossible to have rain fed agriculture. In other parts of the world, the land degradation is going to increase. We already have a third of global agricultural land that's degraded. Imagine if that increases. So all of this puts pressure, of course, on ecosystems, but ultimately puts pressure on our communities and our food systems and us.”

6-11 JULY 2025, CUICOCHA, EQUADOR
16. Aerial shot, cultivated fields and forests
17. Close up, woman farmer from Kichwa Indigenous Peoples harvesting a native variety of maize
18. Wide shot, women farmers from Kichwa Indigenous Peoples participating in ancestral harvest gratitude ceremony

3 NOVEMBER 2025, ROME, ITALY
19. SOUNDBITE (English), Kaveh Zahedi, FAO Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment: “You can't deal with forests, you can't deal with agriculture without dealing with the people who are custodians of the land, who are producing our food, our agriculture. And in many cases, especially in the case of the forests, that is the Indigenous Peoples and the knowledge that they bring, traditional knowledge that they bring that can actually safeguard us against a very uncertain future.”

21 AUGUST 2024, CHEREPONI, NORTH-EAST REGION, GHANA
20. Wide shot, FAO trainer meeting a group of women farmers

19 OCTOBER 2024, BAGDAD, MAURITANIA
21. Wide shot, FAO Forestry Officer selecting seeds for aerial seeding operations
22. Med shot, drone used for aerial seeding operations

11 AUGUST, DÜZCE PROVINCE, TÜRKIYE
23. Med shot, FAO beekeeping trainer speaking

MARCH 2024, CHOLUTECA, HONDURAS
24. Close up, irrigation system for maize plants in the Dry Corridor of Honduras
25. Drone shot, maize plants in an irrigated farm in the Dry Corridor of Honduras

3 NOVEMBER 2025, ROME, ITALY
26. SOUNDBITE (English), Kaveh Zahedi, FAO Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment: “Investments in agrifood system solutions bring multiple benefits, right? Of course, it's about climate response, building resilience, reducing emissions, carbon sequestration. But it's also about the sustainable use of biodiversity. It's also about land degradation and reversing land degradation. And of course it's about food security. So, we firmly believe that agrifood system solutions bring benefits across the board, bring multiple benefits. And right now, if you look just at climate finance, only about 4 percent of it is making it to some of these solutions, like restoring degraded land like agroforestry. And we need to increase that if really we're going to get the most the optimum out of the solutions that only agriculture and food systems have to offer.”

6 MAY 2025, ABADE, PRINCIPE
27. Aerial shot, boats on beach

21 APRIL, CALAUIT ISLAND, BUSUANGA, PHILIPPINES
28. Med shot, fisherman at work

7-12 AUGUST 2025, BAMYAN PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN
29. Close up, wheat ready for harvest
30. Wide shot, women harvesting wheat

28-30 MAY 2025, ALMOSI, TAJIKISTAN
31. Close up, Hisori sheeps in open pastures

5 SEPTEMBER 2025, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
32. Med shot, farmers harvesting dasheen leaves

28-30 MAY 2025, ALMOSI, TAJIKISTAN

33. Wide shot, farmer cleaning the trunk of a vineyard from old bark

Script COP30, the forthcoming meeting of world leaders on climate change is “an incredibly important watershed moment” for the future of agriculture, said Kaveh Zahedi, head of the climate division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), will take place from 10 to 21 November 2025 in Belém, Brazil, bringing together world leaders, scientists, non-governmental organizations, and civil society to define urgent actions against climate change.

“Agriculture and food systems have to be an integral part of discussions on adaptation and building resilience,” Zahedi said, underlining that COP30 is “a critical moment.”

Zahedi expressed his concern about the accelerating climate impacts on food security ahead of the climate conference and stressed the importance of investing in agrifood system solutions to build resilience and reduce emissions. The strongest line of defense is a climate-resilient agrifood system, one that protects harvests, markets, and livelihoods from the next shock.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kaveh Zahedi, FAO Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment:
“It's not about the future. It's happening right now. Climate extremes are impacting food and agriculture today. They are reducing yields. The unpredictability of the weather is making it very difficult for farmers to harvest. One extreme event undermines an entire harvest.”

The Director of the FAO Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment urged global leaders to take action to reverse this trend.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kaveh Zahedi, FAO Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment:
“If we don't do anything about it, if the trajectory continues, the scenarios are that in some parts of the world, it's going to be impossible to have rain fed agriculture. In other parts of the world, the land degradation is going to increase. We already have a third of global agricultural land that's degraded. Imagine if that increases. So all of this puts pressure, of course, on ecosystems, but ultimately puts pressure on our communities and our food systems and us.”

Zahedi underscored the importance of protecting forests in our efforts to mitigate the climate crisis. This year’s summit will be the first UN climate conference held in the Amazon, a symbolic backdrop for discussions on the climate crisis.

FAO is supporting the COP30 Presidency's initiative "Tropical Forests Forever Facility" which aims at investing in the forest communities and the Indigenous Peoples who keep forests standing. Their knowledge, according to Zahedi, is part of the solutions for climate change, food security and protecting biodiversity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kaveh Zahedi, FAO Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment:
“You can't deal with forests, you can't deal with agriculture without dealing with the people who are custodians of the land, who are producing our food, our agriculture. And in many cases, especially in the case of the forests, that is the Indigenous Peoples and the knowledge that they bring, traditional knowledge that they bring that can actually safeguard us against a very uncertain future.”

During COP30, countries will present new national action plans (NDCs) to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C. Without transforming agriculture and food systems, achieving the Paris Agreement is nearly impossible, said Kaveh Zahedi.

In light of this, FAO is supporting countries to incorporate solutions across agricultural sectors for building resilience, reducing emissions and safeguarding food security. Through the Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation (FAST) Partnership, FAO is supporting the, Resilient Agriculture Investment for net Zero land degradation (RAIZ) accelerator, a global effort under the COP Presidency’s Action Agenda to unlock investments for the restoration of degraded agricultural land.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in fact, projects that up to 10 percent of today’s agricultural land could become unfarmable by 2050, rising to 30 percent by 2100 under a high-emissions scenario.

If the climate crisis is accelerating, investments in solutions need to accelerate as well said the Director of the FAO Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment. Currently, only about 4 percent of climate-related development finance reaches sectors responsible for food production, crop production, livestock, fisheries, and forestry. This must change highlighted Zahedi.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kaveh Zahedi, FAO Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment:
“Investments in agrifood systems solutions bring multiple benefits, right? Of course, it's about climate response, building resilience, reducing emissions, carbon sequestration. But it's also about the sustainable use of biodiversity. It's also about land degradation and reversing land degradation. And of course it's about food security. So, we firmly believe that agrifood systems solutions bring benefits across the board, bring multiple benefits. And right now, if you look just at climate finance, only about 4 percent of it is making it to some of these solutions, like restoring degraded land like agroforestry. And we need to increase that if really we're going to get the most, the optimum out of the solutions that only agriculture and food systems have to offer.”

An estimated 8.2 percent of the global population, or about 673 million people, experienced hunger in 2024, according to the latest The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report (SOFI 2025). Climate extremes are one of the main drivers of hunger together with conflicts and economic shocks.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will participate in COP30 to highlight the central role of sustainable and resilient agrifood systems in achieving climate goals and ensuring food security for the 1.2 billion people whose livelihoods depend on them.

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