An Artificial Intelligence (AI) food system conceptual climate finance framework for mitigating climate change in the Western Cape, Prof. Osden Jokonya, Prof. Oliver Moravčík

Professor Osden Jokonya
Department of Information Systems, University of the Western Cape,
South Africa
Professor Oliver Moravčík
Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava
Slovakia

Paper Type: Research
Received: 10 October 2025 /    Revised: 29 October 2025 / Accepted: 26 November 2025 /    Published: 30 December 2025
DOI: 10.47556/B.OUTLOOK2025.23.26

Background: The growing global population, expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, is increasing the demand for sustainable food system practices and resilient food systems. The food system contributes to nearly one-third of global emissions, while smallholder farmers, who survive on farming, face challenges related to climate change and inefficient resource use. Existing research suggests a lack of innovative approaches to reduce food system emissions and waste while improving sustainability in the face of climate change.
Objectives: The study's primary objective is to propose a conceptual climate finance framework to enable small-scale farmers to reduce pollution and generate verifiable environmental pollution credits. The study addresses a significant gap in the literature by proposing a machine learning-based conceptual climate finance framework for an environmental pollution credit system, aimed at small-scale farmers in the Western Cape, South Africa.
Method: The study adopted an organisational cybernetics systems approach to propose a conceptual climate finance framework. The climate finance framework will use machine learning (ML) techniques such as supervised learning, which can accurately predict and classify new and previously unseen data, learning from labelled datasets collected from various datasets in food systems.  
Conclusion: The study findings suggest that the proposed climate finance framework will not only help optimize farm practices but also allow farmers to earn pollution credits, offering new revenue streams. The study supports the COP29 agenda and drives advancements toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The proposed framework contributes to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and driving meaningful environmental change in the region.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Climate Finance, Sustainable Development Goals, Organisational Cybernetics, Systems Approach.

Citation: Jokonya, O. and Moravčík, O. (2025): An Artificial Intelligence (AI) food system conceptual climate finance framework for mitigating climate change in the Western Cape. World Sustainable Development Outlook 2025, Vol. 21, pp. 403-418. WASD: London, United Kingdom.