Include agriculture in post Kyoto talks, IFPRI
By SSI staff writer
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia- As leaders of the G20 gather in London to seek shared solutions to the global economic crisis, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is calling for agriculture to be included in the global climate change negotiations to be held at Copenhagen, Denmark in December.
According to IFPRI, agriculture plays an important role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and should be in the discussion in Copenhagen, as the world grapples with a new international climate agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
Besides the inclusion of agriculture IFPRI is calling for investments in a global mitigation funding mechanism that will support climate change goals while enhancing the well-being of people who manage and depend on agriculture, especially in the developing world as well as include agriculture and land-use change from the outset of any Post-Kyoto agreement but allow for long-term means-tested adjustment opportunities
“The world's greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) comprise 40,809 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide, which equivalents (mtCO2e)”, said IFPRI
In developing nations, GHG emissions stand at 22,186 mtCO2e, the think-tank said.
On the effects of climate change on agriculture, IFPRI said that rain-fed maize and rice yields would decline in the range of 17-20 per cent by 2050.
"Our children will pay the price of climate change. We must start adaptation in agriculture now if we are to feed the world sustainably and reduce poverty," it noted.
Already the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference is underway in Bonn, which represents the first round of negotiations that will pave the way for the final conference in Copenhagen. The work programme approved last December by world delegates in Poznan calls for a negotiating document to be put forward by June.
Discussions under the Kyoto Protocol on emission reductions to be achieved by industrialized countries after 2012 will center on issues such like the scale of reductions, improvements to emissions trading and the Kyoto Protocol's carbon offset mechanisms, land-use change and forestry.