Dozens of leaders make 'historic' green farming pledge at Cop28

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More than 100 world leaders have vowed to put greener farming at the heart of their climate plans, in a much-anticipated pledge on the second day of Cop28 that recognises the link between global warming and food.

The Emirates Declaration – signed by 134 countries including the UAE, the US and China – says that “any path” to meeting the world’s key 1.5°C climate goal must involve food and agriculture.

They vowed to cut emissions from farming – about a third of the world’s greenhouse gas footprint – by shifting to “more sustainable production and consumption”, at a summit priding itself on “mainly plant-based” catering.

At the same time, they pledged to help protect farmers from the effects of climate change in the face of “mounting hunger, malnutrition, and economic stresses”.

Mariam Al Mheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, declared it “a historic moment for food systems” as she revealed that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will fund $200 million of research and innovation in agriculture.

Campaigners welcomed the language on greener farming being key to the 1.5°C goal, which is “what we’ve fought for in the last five years”, ProVeg International lobbyist Raphael Podselver told The National.

“It’s really clear there is no way to achieve the Paris Agreement if we don’t fundamentally transform food systems, even if we phase out fossil fuels tomorrow,” Mr Podselver said.

“People laughed at us [at Cop24] in Katowice five years ago for connecting food and climate change,” he said – but leaders in Dubai have now given “a very strong signal”.

The text unveiled on Friday, after the UAE presidency spent months encouraging countries to sign up, says:

· Agriculture and food systems “must urgently adapt and transform in order to respond to the imperatives of climate change"

· Countries will work together to conserve nature and ecosystems, improve soil health and biodiversity and shift from high-emission practices to more sustainable methods, including by reducing food waste

· They also plan to help farmers adapt to climate change with early warning systems for natural disasters, school meal programmes and better water management

· The countries commit to integrating food and environmental policy by 2025, which is when the next round of national climate plans is due

“We stress that any path to fully achieving the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement must include agriculture,” the declaration says, referring to the deal that set the 1.5°C global warming target.

The UAE minister said the countries involved, which include Brazil, the UK, France, Australia, Egypt and Morocco, represent three quarters of the world’s agricultural emissions.

“I did promise many of you over the last few years that we would bring agriculture and food systems to centre stage at Cop28, and here we are,” she told delegates to applause at the summit.

Hopes for AI

Leaders are pledging to help farmers affected by rising temperatures. AFP

Bill Gates said crop failure in Africa because of rising temperatures, leading to malnutrition, underdevelopment and death, was what first made him aware of the effects of climate change.

“There is reason to believe that by using the latest techniques, of being able to sequence genes, using AI, using satellite data, that for all the crops – not just the main cereal crops – we can make them far more productive and far more climate resilient,” he said of his planned investment.

Further discussions on food are planned at Cop28, which is scheduled to run until December 12. An early negotiating text being discussed by all the nearly 200 countries at the summit leaves open what they will say on agriculture.

At Cop28’s food pavilion, Mr Podselver acknowledged that leaders were unlikely to go as far as suggesting plant-based diets – despite the range of salads and vegetarian sandwiches on offer in Dubai.

Cop28 at Expo City Dubai - in pictures

Activists for a vegan diet “have seen that acknowledged more in the catering” even if not in negotiating texts, said Lana Weidgenant, a fellow ProVeg campaigner who also welcomed the Emirates Declaration.

“We have seen these Cops before talk about food systems and agriculture but this is taking to another level in bringing it to a leaders’ declaration,” she said.

As with Cop28’s first-day breakthrough on climate-related loss and damage, campaigners said it was now up to leaders to turn their words in Dubai into action back home.

“This declaration will only be meaningful if we see follow-through on the ground,” said Jennifer Morris, chief executive of the Nature Conservancy, which is co-hosting the food pavilion in Dubai.

“The 134 countries who have committed to the declaration will need to work with every actor in the food system to deliver real lasting change."

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome

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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026

1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years

If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.

2. E-invoicing in the UAE

Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.

3. More tax audits

Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.

4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime

Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.

5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit

There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.

6. Further transfer pricing enforcement

Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.

7. Limited time periods for audits

Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.

8. Pillar 2 implementation

Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.

9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services

Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.

10. Substance and CbC reporting focus

Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.

Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer

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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts

Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.

The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.

Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.

More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.

The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.

Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:

November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.

December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.

July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.

May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.

New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.