On October 8, 2026, the United Nations Environment Programme-International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEPM), together with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and SynTao, jointly held a side event themed "Resilient Agrifood Systems" at Bangkok Climate Week (BKKCAW2026). Nearly 70 experts and representatives from international organizations, research institutions, enterprises, farms, and NGOs attended the event, discussing pathways for green and low-carbon transformation of agriculture in Asia around the topic of rice methane emission reduction.
Dr. Wang Bin, a researcher at the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, delivered a keynote speech titled "Synergy between Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction and Yield Increase in China's Rice Cultivation," showcasing a series of technologies that achieve around 20% methane emission reduction while maintaining or increasing yields, including fertilizer management and water-saving irrigation. He emphasized that advancing greenhouse gas emission reduction in rice cultivation must uphold the bottom line of food security, and that appropriate technology pathways for reducing emissions while increasing yields should be selected according to different regions and production conditions.
Dr. Bjoern Ole Sander of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) introduced Southeast Asia's experiences in scaling up low-carbon rice, proposing a "four-pillar" implementation pathway consisting of supportive policies, a scalable MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification) system, farmer incentives, and private sector participation. He noted that small-scale donor funding can leverage more domestic funding and social capital to participate in promoting the scaling up of emission reduction.
In the panels on "Multi-stakeholder Participation in Building a Rice Methane Emission Reduction Mechanism" and "From Field to Value Chain," representatives from Chinese and international research institutions, international organizations, NGOs, farms, and listed companies shared their respective experiences and observations, and engaged in in-depth exchanges with the audiences.
Participants generally agreed that the main challenges in current rice methane emission reduction lie in organizational mechanisms and funding guarantees. In the future, collaborative cooperation among key stakeholders is needed to build a low-emission value chain covering everything from farm fields to people's dining tables, and to promote the realization of green, sustainable, and climate-resilient agrifood systems in Asia.
