On the sidelines of the UN Climate Summit, the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture was launched, which aims to achieve “sustainable and equitable increases in agricultural productivity and incomes” and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the same time. More than 20 governments, and 30 organisations and companies announced they would join the initiative, including McDonald’s, Walmart and Kelloggs. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the initiative: “I am glad to see action that will increase agricultural productivity, build resilience for farmers and reduce carbon emissions.” But a coalition of over 100 civil society and farmers' organisations released an open letter on Monday rejecting the launch of this “deceptive and deeply contradictory initiative”. The organisations, among them ActionAid, Friends of the Earth, the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements and Third World Network, warn that the Global Alliance will not deliver the solutions that are urgently need “to help farming systems - and particularly small-scale farmers - adapt to a changing climate, and to revive and reclaim the agroecological systems on which future sustainable food production depends.” The signatories fear that the Alliance provides a platform for agribusiness firms to promote industrial farming: “By endorsing the activities of the planet’s worst climate offenders in agribusiness and industrial agriculture, the Alliance will undermine the very objectives that it claims to aim for. The organisations say the initiative lacks social and environmental criteria as well as a clear definition for what can or cannot be considered “climate-smart”. Instead of creating one more body for business-as-usual, governments, funding agencies and international organisations should take bold action. According to the NGOs, this includes “committing to shift resources away from climate-damaging practices of chemical-intensive industrial agriculture and meat production and towards investment in and commitment to agroecology, food sovereignty, and support to small-scale food producers.”