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Especulando con el Carbono |
En las actuales negociaciones sobre el cambio climático global se trata a las emisiones de gas de invernadero como una mercancía que puede ser transada. Las transacciones de carbono en mercados pobremente regulados de futuros de productos primarios han entorpecido los esfuerzos en enfrentar el cambio climático. Los planes para expandir las transacciones de carbono pueden afectar también la seguridad alimentaria. Un mercado de derivados de carbones es innecesario y no debe ser parte de las políticas nacionales o internacionales. |
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Speculating on Carbon: The Next Toxic Asset fact sheet |
A summary of the longer paper looking at the potential for financial institutions to undermine carbon markets through excessive speculation. |
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Press Release: Climate agreement must support shift toward sustainable agriculture |
To effectively address global climate change, policy solutions must support a transition toward more sustainable agriculture systems that recognize the critical role agriculture plays in the world, concludes a series of issue briefs released today by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). |
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Agriculture and Climate—The Critical Connection |
This paper provides an overview on the multiple ways agriculture impacts and is impacted by climate change. It makes the case that sustainable farming systems can reduce agriculture’s GHG emissions and be a primary vehicle to stabilize and reverse climate change, while continuing to provide food, feed, fiber, and energy in a changing climate. Achieving “climate-friendly” agriculture systems requires a shift in focus, research and investment away from industrialized, input and fossil-fuel intensive agricultural practices toward low-input, resilient agricultural systems that increase carbon sequestration in the soil and lessen output of greenhouse gases. |
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Climate and Agriculture: A Just Response (Executive Summary) |
Executive summary of IATP's Climate and Agriculture series for the Copenhagen climate talks in December 2009. |
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Climate Inequity |
This paper reviews the disproportionate role of wealthy nations in contributing global GHG emissions, contrasted with the role of poorer nations and people. It finds extreme inequity in terms of who contributes to climate change and who benefits from GHG-intensive development patterns. The paper links the eradication of the Indigenous commons in the U.S., and the capture of agriculture and farming by agribusiness, to the same market-based philosophy underlying the industrial world’s approach to climate change. The paper concludes that long-lasting solutions to climate change must inherently be equitable in order to be sustainable. |
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Eye of the Storm: Integrated Solutions to the Climate, Agriculture and Water Crises |
This paper reviews the interconnected nature of the climate, water and agriculture crises—and points to the need for an integrated approach to effectively address challenges in all three by developing complementary policy options and action steps. There is growing recognition that water ecology will be severely impacted by climate change. What is less understood is that our collective abuse and mismanagement of fresh water is also a serious cause of climate change and global warming. Climate impacts on water will directly affect agriculture. And, of course, agricultural practices can both impact and mitigate climate change and water crisis. Moreover, the type and scale of water-use methods influences the degree of farmer vulnerability in a changing climate. Because rain-fed areas are particularly critical for many subsistence farming communities, climate change will have a significant impact on the potential for reducing hunger and food insecurity.
The dramatic convergence of these crises compel us to shift away from the dominant water intensive industrial agriculture model toward more sustainable and just alternatives. Ultimately, multifunctional and ecologically appropriate agriculture will play a critical role in addressing global chal¬lenges related to climate, water, social justice and food. |
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Putting Agriculture on the Global Climate Agenda |
In 2009, agriculture’s role within climate negotiations has become much more prominent, becoming part of the official negotiating text. Many developing country delegations are concerned that UNFCCC negotiators have not yet devoted adequate time or resources on the best ways to deal with agriculture within the text. This paper outlines a series of benchmarks for including agriculture within global climate talks. |
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Speculating on Carbon: The Next Toxic Asset |
This paper reviews efforts within U.S. climate legislation and the UNFCCC to create a new carbon emissions derivatives market—which supporters claim is necessary to provide adequate capital for carbon trading. But proposals for a new carbon derivatives market include the same regulatory loopholes
that led to excessive speculation on commodity futures markets in 2007 and 2008. If carbon markets are to be the basis for U.S. climate policy, then it is imperative to limit carbon trading only to emitters and offset project developers; create an independent body to set stable prices for allowance credits; and ban commodity index funds from bundling carbon. |
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U.S. Climate Policy and Agriculture |
This paper reviews the role of agriculture within U.S. climate policy discussions. The United States, one of the world’s largest GHG emitters, has seized upon agriculture and forestry-related sequestration as a mechanism to reduce its overall GHG emissions. Recent U.S. cap-and-trade legislation proposals have set no caps for agriculture emissions. Rather than considering agriculture in its entirety—what practices would be best for not only the climate, but also for farmers, consumers, the soil, air and water—U.S. climate policy instead reduces agriculture to a carbon storage coffer, enabling other sectors to avoid real emission reductions. |
