What is it about agriculture that the world finds so hard? We eat its products every day, after all. Yet when it comes to adopting sensible policies for ensuring that people get fed, that farmers can make a living, and that agriculture does not contribute unnecessarily to climate change, the world’s diplomats are frankly clueless.
We have seen that here in Warsaw. Climate diplomats half way through two weeks of deliberations aimed at delivering a new global treaty to tackle climate change, have reportedly simply walked away from the farming challenge.
Agriculture matters big time for climate — and climate for agriculture. It contributes up to 25 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, through deforestation to make way for farms, manufacturer of agrochemicals, emissions from soils and so on. Meanwhile, farmers are in the front line from the impacts of climate change. And there is huge potential to do things better, for both mitigating climate change and adapting to it. Often the two go together, creating classic win:wins.
But this week specialist negotiators charged with working up proposals on the issue flunked it.
Read the full story by Fred Pearce on the Agriculture and Ecosystems blog.
Photo: N. Palmer (CIAT)
