Climate strategies must identify actions that can maintain food systems resilience in the face of climate change and transition them towards net-zero emissions. Blue foods—foods from oceans, rivers, and lakes—are vital to this transition, yet they are persistently underrepresented in national and international climate policies and at global conferences like the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties 2022 (COP27). In the transformation to net-zero, we need to look at food systems as a whole, both green and blue.
Low-carbon food system pathways include:
- Shifting to blue food species that are more nutritious and lower carbon.
- Improving current blue food production practices.
- Conserving blue carbon ecosystems that support blue foods.
- Managing land and water systems together.
In connection with COP27, this policy brief from the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions explores pathways toward low-carbon food systems and recommendations for government decision-makers to make blue foods a central component of climate action.
Recommendations for action include:
- Recognizing fisheries and aquaculture in the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture.
- Integrating low-carbon blue foods into Nationally Determined Contributions.
- Including blue foods and the ecosystems they depend on in National Adaptation Plans.
- Increasing investments in adaptation and resilience.