At the heart of COP30’s Blue Zone, the Action on Food Hub became a stage for one of the most urgent conversations of our time: how to scale farmer-centered restoration through the power of youth leadership. On Saturday, 15 November 2025, global voices converged to spotlight the role of young changemakers in driving soil health, food security and climate resilience.

The session was organized by the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) in partnership with leading youth networks—including the Youth4Soil Initiative, the UNCCD Youth Caucus, Global Landscapes Forum Restoration Stewards, World Food Forum, International Association for Agriculture Students (IAAS), YOUNGO, and the Young Professionals for Agriculture Development (YPARD). Participants represented a global population from India, Belgium, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Peru, and more.

From 10–21 November 2025, delegates from UN Member States, civil society organizations, the research community, Indigenous peoples, youth, non-profit organizations, the private sector, and more, came together in Belém, Brazil to drive the future of the global climate agenda. 

Representation from diverse groups is paramount to ensuring the voices of all are heard, and central to the approach from the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH). At this year’s COP, we centred youth voices, presented experiential learning from farmer-centred food security initiatives, called for increased attention to soil health as a climate solution from policy and financial stakeholders, and stressed the need for approaches to be rooted in Indigenous knowledge and value systems. The CA4SH Secretariat participated in 20 unique sessions across the Action on Food Hub, Brazil Pavilion, Food & Agriculture Pavilion, Spanish Pavilion, and the Nordic Pavilion, and we supported our network of partners and collaborators by promoting their engagements through our annual #COPSoil landing page.

Read on for an overview of our engagements at COP, positioning soil health as a key climate solution with co-benefits for global food security, biodiversity, sustainable landscapes, and rural livelihoods.

A side event showcased rising global momentum for land restoration, with the Riyadh Action Agenda surpassing one hundred initiatives and the COP28 Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes mobilising more than USD nine billion in private investment.

The Global Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Conference is more than a knowledge exchange platform; it is a platform to incite climate action in agriculture. Immediately preceding the UN Climate Conference (UNFCCC COP30) taking place in Belem, Brazil, organizers of the 2025 CSA conference saw this year’s assembly as a critical opportunity to align on the future of food and agriculture ahead of COP30.

As an organization with action as a primary tenet, the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) was invited to co-chair the Soil Health and Plant Nutrition thematic session with partners from the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC). The session comprised two sub-sessions on 5th and 6th November, dedicated to finance and technology, respectively. Below, we summarize the innovations and key messages shared in these sessions, and chart a way forward for soil health at COP.

By Dr Anneke Trux, Co-Lead of Global Programmes “Soil Protection and Rehabilitation for Food Security” (ProSoil) and “Soil Matters – Innovations for Soil Health and Agroecology”

Soils are finally stepping into the spotlight of global climate action! They do so for good reasons. Long underestimated, they are now recognised as a pillar for climate mitigation. Yet, let’s be clear: while soils are an emerging hero, they are not a silver bullet. They must complement, not replace, mitigation efforts in energy, transport, industry and other.

The COP30 Action Agenda is the UNFCCC COP30 Presidency’s flagship initiative to mobilize voluntary climate action from multistakeholder organizations to tackle the climate crisis in line with the Paris Agreement. The Action Agenda engages actors outside of government, those who are not included in the formal negotiations, but who are essential for actioning the climate agreements on the ground.

The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) is an initiative of Action Group 8, Land Restoration and Sustainable Agriculture, that addresses one of the six thematic axes laid out by the COP30 Presidency, namely, Axis 3. Transforming Agriculture and Food Systems. Learn more about the structure and calls of the Action Agenda here and about the composition of the Action Groups here

Included in the Action Agenda is a call for active solutions to achieve the goals of the Convention. CA4SH and several partners have submitted a solution which aims to bring soil health to the forefront of agricultural transformation. In advance of the COP30, we are excited to share an outline of the solution below.

As Brazil prepares to host COP30 in Belém, CGIAR Climate Action, together with the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Ministerio da Agricultura - MAPA), Embrapa, and CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes, are convening a series of high-level dialogues to put biological solutions at the center of climate action in agriculture.

This webinar showcased how biological nutrient management technologies can be mainstreamed across cropping systems through evidence-based solutions that align science, policy, and practice. By highlighting innovations in phosphorus solubilization, microbial inoculants, and integrated crop-livestock-agroforestry systems, the session aimed to catalyze increased investment from governments, private sector actors, and development partners while demonstrating concrete pathways for farmers to reduce input dependency and enhance soil health at scale.

As COP30 approaches, Dr Leigh Ann Winowiecki from the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) asserts the need to include non-state actors in global discussions to unlock soil health’s vital role in resilient food systems, climate solutions and planetary well-being.

Read the full Op-Ed published by New Food Magazine