Turkey COP31 Presidency and FAO Launch Turquoise Nexus Food-Water-Climate Initiative

Turkey's incoming COP31 Presidency and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization have unveiled the Turquoise Nexus Initiative to help developing countries integrate food security, water management, and climate adaptation into their national climate plans. The initiative was proposed at the Bonn Climate Change Conference on June 16 and is scheduled for formal launch at COP31 in Antalya.

The Turquoise Nexus Initiative will operate as a programme under FAO's Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation Partnership, itself launched by the COP27 Presidency in 2022. It responds to a recognised gap in NDC design, where food, water, and climate challenges are treated as separate policy domains despite their deep interdependence. The World Farmers' Organisation endorsed the initiative and called for farmers to be formally recognised as primary water resource managers and for climate finance to reach frontline agricultural communities.

Turkey included food security among its priorities for COP31 on June 9, framing the initiative as a bridge between climate ambition and agricultural resilience. Ahmet Bagci, Turkey's Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, emphasised that investment strategies must reflect the inseparability of food, water, and climate. The initiative aims to enable farmer-inclusive strategies and improve climate finance flows to countries that currently struggle to mobilise NDC-linked resources for agricultural adaptation.

The initiative is particularly relevant for South Asia, where food-water-climate interlinkages shape millions of livelihoods and where monsoon variability driven by El Nino cycles regularly disrupts agricultural calendars. India, as one of the world's largest food producers and a country grappling with groundwater depletion and erratic rainfall, stands to benefit from multilateral frameworks that align food system resilience with NDC commitments and climate finance architecture.

Key figure — Formal COP31 launch in Antalya scheduled