IATP's Anne Laure Constantin is in Bonn, Germany, this week for global talks to develop a new international framework to address climate change. The Bonn meeting is leading up to the larger global climate meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009.
On Saturday, April 4, I attended a workshop focused on agriculture's contribution to mitigating climate change. That workshop was part of a session of negotiations on climate that has been requested by a large group of countries—mostly developed countries or agricultural exporters. It was organized by the UNFCCC, the UN body in charge of making sure an international deal is agreed to by the end of the year to avoid the devastating effects of global climate change.
I will be writing more about the prospects for agriculture and food in the context of these negotiations. In the meantime, just a few thoughts:
- For those of you who are interested, you can watch the whole session (3 hours), or specific country interventions (about a dozen made presentations) here. You can also find the different PowerPoints that were presented on that same page;
- All country representatives who spoke agreed that agriculture has to be part of the effort to fight climate change. The HOW is what remains to be answered! It was striking to see the wide range of countries' concerns: competitiveness issues (Saudi Arabia seems to be very worried that it won't be able to sell oil in the future!!), how to foster the development of technologies (including methane vaccines), the need to cope with immediate threats to food security, a focus on accessing climate funding, and so on.
- While large exporters like New Zealand stressed that expectations on the possibility to reduce emissions from agriculture have to be realistic (i.e., small, at least for now), poor countries like Bangladesh and Senegal pointed out that mitigation was an absolute need if they were going to be able to keep producing.
The climate talks are not moving fast enough. There is increasing concern around a possible failure to reach an agreement in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. Adding agriculture to the picture is very risky. But at the same time, ignoring it is impossible.
