Agriculture offers a two-fold benefit for the climate: as a place to reduce direct emissions and as a carbon sink. Many farmers have already adopted more climate-friendly agriculture practices, stimulated in part by programs in the 2008 Farm Bill.
At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, governments will decide whether to expand the role that agriculture plays within global climate talks.
As combined economic entities, members of the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) exceed the size of most governments. So, when IETA made a new financing proposal just prior to last week's UN global climate talks in Bonn, attention was paid.