DTA at COP30: Why Digital Transformation Belongs at the Heart of Climate Action

As the world gathers in Brazil for COP30, the conversations are once again focused on how to turn climate ambition and food security into real-world action. For the CGIAR Digital Transformation Accelerator (DTA), one question stands out: how can data and technology help build the resilience that smallholder farmers, vulnerable communities, and agricultural ecosystems urgently need? 

At DTA, we believe digital innovation isn’t just about apps, dashboards, or algorithms; it’s about people and impact. It’s about creating Digital for Public Good solutions that empower communities and drive meaningful change. It’s about helping a farmer in Zambia anticipate droughts through early warning systems, or enabling a policymaker in Kenya to access reliable, real-time data for climate-smart decisions. It’s about giving communities the information, tools, and connections they need to adapt and thrive in a changing climate. 

Across CGIAR and its partners, we see these stories unfolding every day. Digital solutions help monitor soil health, optimize irrigation, and strengthen food security while reducing environmental impact. In many regions, open data platforms are bringing researchers, governments, and farmers together, building the kind of collaboration COP30 calls for on a global scale. 

Yet there’s still a long way to go. Many farmers remain beyond the reach of digital tools. Valuable data often sits in silos. And too few climate policies fully recognize the transformative power of digital innovation. 

That’s why COP30 matters. It’s a chance to place digital transformation at the heart of climate action, and not on the sidelines. Adaptation, mitigation, and food systems’ resilience should also include connectivity, data governance, and digital inclusion. Because without these, even the best climate solutions may never reach the people who need them most. 

DTA Key Sessions at COP30: AgriLLM and the Digital Stack for Climate Action 

At COP30, DTA will lead with an interactive session, The Full Stack: From AI Models to Ethical Policy and Farmer Impact, showcasing how AI-powered dashboards and farmer advisory hubs combine into an integrated digital stack for climate action, linking advanced technology to practical farmer tools, all grounded in ethics and inclusion. 

The second session, Introducing AgriLLM: An AI-Powered Agricultural Advisory Service for the Global South, will unveil AgriLLM, a collaborative AI initiative designed to make agricultural knowledge accessible to everyone. Developed by AI71 in partnership with CGIAR and more than 15 global partners, including EMBRAPA, FAO, IFAD, and the World Bank, AgriLLM is an agriculture-specialized large language model designed to deliver accessible farm advisory services for smallholder farmers in the Global South. AgriLLM has been benchmarked against leading AI systems to ensure top performance and will be released as an open resource model. 

What to Expect from the DTA Sessions at COP30 

• Introduction of the vision and mission of the AgriLLM 

• Fast-paced demos that replace static presentations. 

• A provocative pivot designed to spark integrated dialogue instead of siloed talks. 

• Practical insights into why equity and ethics are non-negotiable for scaling AI responsibly. 

Why It Matters 

• Discover how AI connects governance dashboards and farmer advisories for real field impact. 

• Explore opportunities for pilots, uptake, and scaling pathways that turn innovation into local action. 

• Help shape the roadmap ahead of AgriLLM’s global launch in December 2025 through collaborative delivery and co-design. 

This is more than technology; it’s about embedding ethics and inclusion into every layer, so these innovations scale responsibly and equitably.  

Join us at COP30 to be part of this transformation. Together, we can co-design solutions that deliver impact where it matters most on the ground.