Climate resources

This paper describes the potential role innovative agricultural practices and technologies can play in climate change mitigation and adaptation and aims to address the question: what policy and institutional changes are needed to encourage the innovation and diffusion of these practices and technologies to developing countries?

This paper examines the potential of China's agriculture to adapt to a changing climate, and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Agriculture has a real and significant role to play in combating climate change but these opportunities are not being optimized, and in fact, may be squandered in current legislation under consideration.

A new proposal by the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) for “green sectoral bonds” would transform global climate finance from a public fiduciary duty, primarily funded by developed countries, to a new source of developing-country debt to private creditors—and a new source of profits for IETA members.

This report finds that overseas agriculture and logging operations are expanding production by cutting down the world’s rainforests, allowing them to flood the world market with cheap commodities that undercut American goods. The report estimates that ending deforestation will boost revenue for U.S. producers by between $196-$267 billion by 2030 – approximately equivalent to the entire amount projected to be spent by farmers on energy during that time.

Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide interfere with plants’ ability to convert nitrate into protein and could threaten food quality, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The scientists suggest that, as global climate change intensifies, it will be critical for farmers to carefully manage nitrogen fertilization in order to prevent losses in crop productivity and quality.

This paper by the Global Donor Platform makes recommendations on how, within the global climate negotiations, agriculture can contribute to food security and secured livelihoods, while simultaneously building resilience to climate change, reducing GHG emissions and sequestering carbon.

This paper by IFPRI looks at climate change impacts on the hydrology and irrigation of the Limpopo River Basin of Southern Africa

This report by environmental engineers outlines the use of water in developing countries to produce food exported to developed countries. It urges multilateral institutions and negotiations, such as the global climate talks, to integrate water use into these discussions.

REUTERS | Richard Cowan | April 15, 2010 WASHINGTON - A compromise bill to reduce U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming will be unveiled by a group of senators on April 26, according to a source. The legislative language to be sketched out in 11 days is being drafted by Democratic Senator John Kerry, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman. The three senators have been working for months on the global warming measure, trying to include enough pro-industry incentives to attract the support of at least some Republicans, who are essential to passage. Besides setting a target of 17 percent reductions in smokestack emissions of carbon dioxide by 2020, from 2005 levels, Kerry, Lieberman and Graham are writing a bill that would expand domestic offshore oil drilling and construction of new nuclear power facilities. Both provisions, sought by Graham and other Republicans, could jeopardize support from some liberal Democrats, however. On Wednesday, Reuters was told by a Senate source the legislation would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon dioxide emissions. It also would end state and regional carbon-trading programs, such as the one several northeastern states now participate in, to be replaced by a national carbon-reduction policy. Once the senators sketch out their bill on April 26, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid will decide the next steps in a year crowded with other competing legislative priorities and looming congressional elections in November. (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Eric Beech)

The executive summary of a series of reports looking at the impact of climate change on women in southern Africa.

A letter from more than 50 organizations calling on the Obama administration to support the UNFCCC process for negotiating a global agreement on climate change.

Over 25 organizations representing agriculture organizations and rural communities sent a letter to the Senate yesterday urging Senators to reject attempts to undermine the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s ability to enforce the Clean Air Act.

This report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization includes a section on livestock's contribution to global warming and associated policy recommendations.

Proposals to buy and sell carbon emissions credits to meet greenhouse gas commitments dominated the alternatives at the recent climate change negotiations in Copenhagen. Dr. Suppan’s presentation will give an overview of the theory of carbon trading and both regulatory and economic problems of introducing a legislatively invented commodity into the commodity futures market. The Over the Counter Derivatives Act of 2009, passed by the House of Representatives on December 11, will affect how carbon derivatives are traded. Will this legislation conform to U.S. WTO commitments to limit the ability of governments to regulate financial services? What kind of regulation will be put in place by the Obama administration? Will it enable the estimated $3 trillion market in carbon emissions trading by 2020that some have envisioned?

Work undertaken by the Conference of the Parties at its fifteenth session on the basis of the report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention. See page 36 for the latest version of the agriculture sectoral text. The introduction of the document, though, makes it clear that “The work of the drafting groups was of an informal nature and the texts contained in this document therefore have no formal standing”.

This report by the UN Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) includes sections on market based approaches to agriculture and climate change, organic agriculture's role in low-carbon food production, and considerations about methane emissions.

Twin Cities Star Tribune, January 29, 2010 Here's a way to mitigate the cost of carbon reduction for almost everybody. A new and vastly improved climate change policy has come out of nowhere to capture the imagination of state and national policymakers: "Cap and dividend." It works like this: Step one, impose a carbon cap. Step two, auction off all carbon allowances. Step three, return the revenues generated to all households on a per capita basis.

Grasslands have vast untapped potential to mitigate climate change by absorbing and storing CO2, according to a new report by FAO.

<p>Carbon trading lies at the centre of global climate policy and is projected to become one of the world's largest commodities markets, yet it has a disastrous track record since its adoption as part of the Kyoto Protocol.</p> <p>Carbon Trading: how it works and why it fails/ outlines the limitations of an approach to tackling climate change which redefines the problem to fit the assumptions of neoliberal economics. It demonstrates that the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), the world's largest carbon market, has consistently failed to 'cap' emissions, while the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) routinely favours environmentally ineffective and socially unjust projects. This is illustrated with case studies of CDM projects in Brazil, Indonesia, India and Thailand.</p> <p>UN climate talks in Copenhagen are discussing ways to expand the trading experiment, but the evidence suggests it should be abandoned. From subsidy shifting to regulation, there is a plethora of ways forward without carbon trading -- but there are no short cuts around situated local knowledge and political organising if climate change is to be addressed in a just and fair manner.</p> <p>Chapter 1: Introduces carbon trading, how it works and some of the actors involved.</p> <p>Chapter 2: Explores the origins and key actors involved in building the architecture of emissions trading.</p> <p>Chapter 3: Examines the performance of the EU ETS and finds that it has generously rewarded polluting companies while failing to reduce emissions. Many of the scheme's flaws, from the over-allocation of permits to pollute onwards, are found to be fundamental to the cap and trade approach more generally.</p> <p>Chapter 4: Outlines the performance of the CDM and looks at four case studies of CDM projects in Thailand, India, Indonesia and Brazil; it argues that offsets projects, even those that promote renewable energy, will not be a solution to climate change.</p> <p>Chapter 5: Outlines what could work and ways forward for political organising around questions of climate change.</p> <p>Published by: Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

COP 15 draft on future dates for COP meetings.

Fidel Castro on the Copenhagen climate meeting.

New York Times blog, Green, Inc. on the progress of addressing agricultural issues during the Copenhagen climate talks.

State of agriculture text at the close of COP 15 on December 18, 2009.

The climate change we are living is not any crisis, it is a global alert about the way toward self destruction that the powerful have chosen, given the lack of equitable possibilities that the world need in order to survive –the indigenous peoples, the social groups living in poverty, women, the elderly and children are the most affected by it in today’s world.

Press release from IATP: A new global research alliance, led by New Zealand and the U.S., on agriculture and climate change should include participation from farmers in countries facing food insecurity and emphasize practices that are low-cost and ready for immediate application, said the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) today.

Commentary in the Guardian by noted climate scientist, James Hansen, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, on what must be done to reverse global warming.

IFAP press release: The climate agreement must link food security and climate change adaptation and mitigation

From Miller-McCune: Climate legislation says we can stop global warming, improve our soils and help our farmers all at once. Not so fast.

Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement arm against organized crime, announced on Wednesday that carbon-trading fraud has cost the bloc’s governments $7.4 billion in lost tax revenue over the last 18 months.

Poor countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America will bear the worst consequences of climate change. Global warming is projected to lower the level and growth of GDP and thus increase poverty, undermining progress towards achievement of Millennium Development Goals. Within the populations that will be most affected by global warming, the plight of many individuals is linked to the ability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) to adapt to the consequences of climate change.

A draft Copenhagen climate agreement prepared by the hosts Denmark that was leaked to the Guardian.

By not properly discussing agriculture at national or international climate negotiations, we are avoiding tackling not just a huge source of emissions, but also a potential carbon sink.

JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley will be watching closely as 192 nations gather in Copenhagen next week to try to forge a new climate-change treaty that would, for the first time, include the U.S. and China.

Many observers have commented that efforts to ‘reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation’ will require major changes in forest governance, policies, laws and relationships between governments and people living in and around the forests. As a means of tackling climate change, REDD faces particular difficulties, not the least in terms of: * monitoring the state of forests and the volumes of carbon either being emitted or stored; * in preventing ‘avoided deforestation’ efforts in one location simply shifting the problem elsewhere; and * finding ways that funding can be got to the people living in the forests – who should ultimately make the decisions about whether their forests stand or fall.

With this Profile for Climate Change, FAO outlines its priorities for its current and future work on climate change. FAO’s work focuses on adaptation mitigation agricultural sectors and advocates for better management synergies trade-offs among both. It also points to the areas where adaptation mitigation activities merge with ongoing development efforts to improve sustainable use of natural resources for increased production, income, food security and rural development.

This material was presented on IATP's free webinar "Carbon Derivatives: The Next Toxic Asset" on December 3, 2009.

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).

Executive summary of IATP's Climate and Agriculture series for the Copenhagen climate talks in December 2009.

This issue of the Critical Currents journal includes ideas from around the world on addressing climate change leading up to global climate talks in Copenhagen.

This sixth report from the Working Group on Climate Change and Development argues that our chances of triumphing over climate change will rise dramatically if we recognise that there we need not one but many models of human development.

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.

From article: The climate-change debate is an opportunity for the United States—agriculture and farmers included—to live up to our self-image as leaders. Failing to do so risks America being seen as a self-serving nation in decline—a portrait our enemies and critics are happy to paint. My hope is we have the vision, courage and wisdom to rise to this occasion. That is why I am going to Copenhagen.

Governments gather in Denmark in December 2009 for what is perhaps the most important meeting since the end of the second world war. December is the deadline they have set themselves for agreeing on action to tackle climate change, and the COP15 conference in Copenhagen is where hopes are high that a new global deal can be struck. This briefing is a guide for journalists reporting on this event, its buildup and its aftermath. It explains key processes, major actions to be agreed and possible outcomes.

Naomi Klein on climate debt: Among the smartest and most promising—not to mention controversial—proposals is "climate debt," the idea that rich countries should pay reparations to poor countries for the climate crisis. ... Justin Lin, chief economist at the World Bank, puts the equation bluntly: "About 75 to 80 percent" of the damages caused by global warming "will be suffered by developing countries, although they only contribute about one-third of greenhouse gases."

The report is intended to be an initial stimulus to a process of discussion, and ultimately commitment to support reforms in smallholder agricultural systems that improve food security, as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Alternative language developed by civil society organizations in Barcelona. It is based on the previous official language included in Non-paper No. 17 on mitigation in agriculture.