The session will explore the impact of false climate solutions – net zero, nature based solutions and carbon removals – on food sovereignty. The scale of agricultural land, forests and ecosystems necessary to fulfil the demand for carbon offset credits is vast and will unleash a new impetus for enclosures and land grabbing. The false legitimacy given to agribusiness from greenwashing will allow them to expand their operations and gain access to new revenue streams from carbon financing and data grabbing. Real solutions like agroecology are under threat from being co-opted into dangerous distractions like nature based solutions.

The European Commission and several non-EU governments are legislating to bring these false solutions into law which will have a profound negative effect on land justice and farming across the world. Meanwhile the rise of climate finance and carbon markets for nature based solutions means it is being seen as a valuable avenue to raise funds and political support for agroecology. These two positions are contradictory and need to be explored within the movement for agroecology and food sovereignty.