Sustainable agriculture message taken to COP30 Climate Change summit

Posted 18 November 2025

A sustainable agriculture expert from Harper Adams University has addressed this year’s COP 30 summit in Brazil. 

Each year, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or Conference of the Parties (COP) aims to bring Governments from across the globe together, encourage them to adopt policies to limit global temperature rises, and help their citizens adapt to the impact of climate change. 

This year’s conference – COP 30 – is taking place in Belém, on the edge of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. 

Harper Adams University has taken an active role in Belém as both an official observer organisation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - and a leading Agri-Food Specialist University.  

Professor Michael Lee, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Sustainable Agriculture expert, is representing the institution and said: “This year’s conference has been described as the Agri-Food COP with food and farming systems hoping to play a much bigger role. 

“Brazil is certainly a good setting for it: internationally, it’s one of the world’s biggest agricultural exporters, while domestically its 3.9m family farms supply 70 per cent of the food Brazilians eat.  

“It’s also home to the majority of the Amazon rainforest - which is critical to climate mitigation and climate systems, but is threatened, predominantly by agricultural expansion.” 

During the first full week of the conference, Professor Lee spoke at three events - including one co-organised by Harper Adams University, the World Farmers Organisation and the British Meat Processors’ Association.  

Firstly, Professor Lee took part in a panel discussion in the main VIP Blue Zone of the conference entitled: Putting it all on the table: animal agriculture and the future of food.  

He added: “Discussions about food and sustainability can be polarising, but a truly sustainable food future requires all foods and production systems to be part of collaborative solutions, including those which sustain the production of nutrient-dense animal-source foods alongside plant-based foods.” 

Professor Lee continued to explore these themes of sustainability and food security later in the week - giving a keynote speech at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s The Role of Livestock in Circular Bioeconomy Systems event. 

This session – which took place in the AgriZone of the main auditorium – explained these recently-launched FAO guidelines, which Professor Lee co-authored as a Technical Advisor. 

Professor Lee added: “Finally, Harper Adams University were immensely proud to have been selected to host a side event within the main Blue Zone on Ruminant Livestock innovation to deliver human nutrition and improved environmental outcomes.  

“I outlined the science which can take the planet towards net-zero farming and was then joined by farmers from every continent of the globe. 

“Each shared their stories of how innovations across different farming practices have significantly reduced their carbon footprint and improved food security for their region. 

“This event highlighted to critical decision-makers and negotiators that ruminant livestock can be part of the solution – improve, don’t remove.”