Agriculture in the climate change negotiations; ensuring that food production is not threatened

Abstract

With the human population predicted to reach nine billion by 2050, demand for food is predicted to more than double over this time period, a trend which will lead to increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. Furthermore, expansion in food production is predicted to occur primarily in the developing world, where adaptation to climate change may be more difficult and opportunities to mitigate emissions limited. In the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 'ensuring that food production is not threatened' is explicitly mentioned in the objective of the Convention. However, the focus of negotiations under the Convention has largely been on reducing GHG emissions from energy, and industrial activities and realizing the potential of forestry as a carbon sink. There has been little attention by the UNFCCC to address the challenges and opportunities for the agriculture sector. Since 2006, concerted efforts have been made to raise the prominence of agriculture within the negotiations. The most recent The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and 'The Emissions Gap Report' by the UNEP highlighted the significant mitigation potential of agriculture, which can help contribute towards keeping global temperature rises below the 28C limit agreed in Cancun. Agriculture has to be a part of the solution to address climate change, but this will also require a focus on how agriculture systems can adapt to climate change in order to continue to increase food output. However, to effectively realize this potential, systematic and dedicated discussion and decisions within the UNFCCC are needed. UNFCCC discussions on a specific agriculture agenda item started in 2012, but are currently inconclusive. However, Parties are generally in agreement on the importance of agriculture in contributing to food security and employment as well as the need to improve understanding of agriculture and how it can contribute to realizing climate objectives. Discussions on agriculture are continuing with a view to finding an acceptable approach to address the climate change related challenges faced by agriculture worldwide and to ensure that 'food production is not threatened'.

The Strategizing of Policy Entrepreneurs towards the Global Alliance for Climate‐Smart Agriculture

“…The broad interpretation of CSA creates a common ground to depart from, but some actors raise the question what is – and what is not – CSA. Although the entrepreneurs have initiated CSA as an alternative approach to those initiated by existing institutions, developments regarding agriculture in the UNFCCC negotiations seem to impact the broader interest in CSA in the second episode: support for collaboration around CSA declines with Parties requesting a formal Program of Work around agriculture at the 17th UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP17), and rises again when at the 18th UN Conference of the Parties (COP18) their request is rejected (Muldowney et al., ). In the words of a researcher: ‘CSA was important to us because we were looking for an alternative platform to get agriculture into the UNFCCC’ (interview 8).…”

An overview of biofuels policies and industrialization in the major biofuel producing countries

“…The main driving forces for the development of biomass in the United States are: (1) to reduce dependence on oil imports and guarantee oil security; (2) to create more employment opportunities and develop agriculture; (3) to promote the development of low-carbon and sustainable economy; and (4) to explore new industries and new technologies so as to form a situation of diversified energy sources and production supply.…”

“…Climate change is a vital challenge now, and by the estimate of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global temperature will rise by 1.4-5.8 1C. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) set the goal of keeping global temperature rises to be below 2 1C in 2012 [2], which needs to decrease the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Bioenergy is a low-carbon and sustainable energy, and is well adaptable for existing fuel storage systems and transportation equipment.…”

Editorial: Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture Conference, Dublin, 2013

“…At first sight, these objectives are contradictory, but 'dilution of maintenance' effects mean that more productive animals are usually more efficient, with reduced emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) per unit product. Balancing the costs and benefits of a wide range of options from disparate activities is an important part of the inter-governmental negotiations on climate change and Muldowney et al (2013) from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in Ireland provided some context for the position of agriculture in these negotiations.…”

“…It was with great vision that Professor Takahashi and colleagues organised the first Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture (GGAA) conference in Japan in 2001. Subsequent meetings were held in In addition to setting the scene for inter-governmental negotiations on climate change (Muldowney et al, 2013), the opening session also surveyed the range of mitigation options with a focus on opportunities and constraints for implementation and exploitation in GHG inventories (Gerber et al, 2013). Life cycle analysis is increasingly used to quantify the total emissions associated with production systems, allowing the user to account for trade-offs between effects and incorporate the indirect emissions.…”