The President of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Dr Agnes Kalibata, has been selected as one of 16 eminent members of the Climate Overshoot Commission.

She joins former heads of government, national ministers, environmental leaders, and high-level international officials, who will evaluate additional approaches for reducing the climate risks of overshoot in an integrated way.

The Climate Overshoot Commission was formed upon the realization that global warming is fast approaching the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal of the Paris Agreement, and an ‘overshoot’ of that goal is likely within the next decade.

The Commission, which is chaired by former World Trade Organisation Director-General Pascal Lamy, will balance the potential, costs and risks of enhanced adaptation, carbon dioxide removal, and sunlight reflection against the serious impacts of a warming world.

The commissioners will meet six times over the next fifteen months – starting in Italy, New York and Egypt – to prepare a strategy that will be unveiled before the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) of 2023. The expected strategy will be evidence-based, just, and promote equitable approaches for reducing risk in a dangerously warming world.

“Rising global temperatures are already creating challenges for global food systems. Africa’s smallholder farmers are facing adverse consequences as a result of fluctuating weather patterns. We are seeing this in droughts, floods, mudslides, and pest attacks across Africa.

"This Commission brings together leaders to work together in advocating for action that can prevent climate overshoot and develop appropriate response strategies to reverse global warming and limit the impacts of worsening climate change,” said Dr Kalibata, who served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021.

Dr Kalibata brings to the Commission a wealth of experience from her involvement in agricultural and food systems, both as a successful minister of agriculture (Rwanda) and as the leader of AGRA.

In both these roles and many others, she has led the development of strategies enabling farmers to adapt to the vagaries of climate change and mitigating further damage.  

Her contribution to finding global solutions to end hunger has seen her win numerous awards and international recognition, including the prestigious Africa Food Prize, an honourary doctorate from the University of Liège, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Public Welfare Medal, amongst many others.