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Given agriculture's unique role as both an emitter and mitigator of climate change, and its enormous contribution to land use patterns around the world, agriculture must be part of any global response to climate change. But agriculture's multifunctionality must not be lost within climate negotiations due to its essential role in providing enough healthy food for everyone; its impacts on water and biodiversity; and of course how it affects rural livelihoods around the world.

Throughout this year, agriculture has taken a more prominent role within the climate negotiations and has actually become part of the negotiating text, but many developing countries are concerned that climate negotiators have not devoted enough time or resources to consider the best way to deal with agriculture.

In a new issue brief, IATP's Anne Laure Constantin outlines a series of benchmarks for negotiators as they consider the role of agriculture within a global climate deal in Copenhagen. She emphasizes the need for a transparent and inclusive process to assess climate solutions against a broad set of metrics for impacts on food security, water and rural livelihoods. In addition, proposals need to prioritize socially and environmentally sustainable solutions that break away from high-input agricultural production and increase support for low-input, sustainable systems. Climate negotiations should not be used to expand trade interests and there needs to be a critical assessment of the role of carbon markets for agriculture. Read the full issue paper here.