At COP29 in Azerbaijan, World Federation for Animals teamed up with groups including Four Paws, Mercy for Animals, Whale and Dolphin Conservation and World Animal Protection to launch the Animals for Climate Action tool, which will seek to guide policymakers into integrating animal welfare into climate and biodiversity strategies.
The tool, which has the support of more than 75 animal welfare organisations worldwide, provides practical recommendations for governments and lawmakers on how they can boost climate resilience, promote sustainable agriculture and increase carbon sequestration by safeguarding wild animals and their habitats.
Launching the tool, World Federation for Animals noted that restoring the populations of just nine species could capture up to 6.4 gigatonnes of CO₂ annually, an indication of the role that animal conservation and rewilding can play in enhancing climate resilience.
SustainabilityOnline caught up with Silvia Mantilla, World Federation for Animals’ Global Policy & Communications Manager, to learn more.
How did the Animals for Climate Action tool come together, and what do you see as the practical applications of it?
To start with, COP29 was obviously the last COP before the deadline for countries to update their Nationally Determined Contributions, and we wanted to use that opportunity to help governments integrate the role of animals in climate decision-making, which has not been getting the visibility it needs.
What we have seen is that there is an emerging area of science in terms of understanding specifically what the contribution of animals to climate action looks like.
The University of Yale has been doing fantastic work, and we’ve had a number of bilateral meetings with countries to raise awareness of this. We have found that governments are actually quite interested in this, because it’s new.
There’s a lot more that we need to understand, but the potential is there—not only for carbon sequestration, but also for all the co-benefits that come with it. So we thought, it feels like there is an interest, and we should bring this together.
Also, we are framing it in such a way that hopefully governments can act on it in a timely manner, because with the biodiversity crisis, we’re losing animal populations at a great speed. So this is really the moment to act.
As well as animal protection, there’s quite a bit of focus on land usage, habitat restoration and rewilding?
Absolutely. The way we see it, animal welfare is not only about the protection of the animals themselves. That’s why we talk about protected areas as well: it’s the ecosystem in which they can thrive, the space in which they can function and contribute.
We think of the animals as the protagonists at the centre, but really it’s about everything that brings us together, connecting the health and well-being of animals, humans, and the planet.
There has been a lot of discussion about the ‘just transition’, which incorporates everybody involved in the supply chain, including the millions of farmers around the world. Obviously, engagement with them and bringing them on the journey is essential. How does that fit in with what you are seeking to achieve with the tool?
I think that’s an excellent question. For us, we see this tool as a starting point for a conversation with many stakeholders, not only governments but also farmers and academia, on how we can expand this knowledge and implement it.
Farmers are definitely a constituency that we need and want to engage with, and hopefully, we can get that conversation going. We want to use this tool as an excuse to connect to other stakeholders and learn from them.
What we have currently is really a condensed version of what we believe is a much broader level of technical expertise that we can put out there for all stakeholders to call upon. So, we’re asking stakeholders, ‘We’re planning to launch this. Do you have any feedback? Are there any examples that you’ve come across that we’re missing out on?”
With that, the tool will continue to grow, and I hope that farmers can be part of that discussion process as well.
There have been some notable initiatives launched recently in Denmark and the Netherlands to transition farmers to more sustainable production, or indeed encourage them to switch from livestock farming altogether. Again, how does this fit in with what you are trying to achieve?
These initiatives are in their early stages, but we’ve taken note of them. It’s definitely too early to judge the impact they will have.
We’re keeping these sort of initiatives on our radar and then looking for feedback on them. With every example, before we expand, we want to hear what others have to say, before we can measure the potential impact.
So, as we grow, taking on inputs and feedback from, for example, farmers, the private sector, and governments, we hope that we can use our Animals for Climate Action tool to create new market opportunities, and raise awareness of all this interconnectedness.
Find out more about the Animals for Climate Action tool here.
