The global financial crisis has shown the gravity of waiting for a disaster before taking action,\u201d former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warned on Wednesday while speaking at the UN climate summit in Durban, South Africa. \u201cRegrettably, we\u2019re far from the (greenhouse gas emission) mitigation pledges needed to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius. I know we won\u2019t be able to remedy the shortcomings this week, but we should take every possible opportunity to strengthen the institutions that were set up in Copenhagen and Cancun (at earlier climate summits). Developed countries must deliver the promised $100 billion by 2020. They must clarify where the money will be sourced from and how it will be accessed by developing countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Annan, who is now\u00a0Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, was speaking at a meeting organised by the World Bank on the sidelines of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change summit. The meeting was on what is now being called \u201cclimate smart agriculture\u201d (CSA) \u2013 agriculture that can withstand climate change effects such as higher temperatures, less water and poorer soils. \u201cWe must emphasise the importance of CSA,\u201d Mr Annan said. \u201cUp to now agriculture has been sidelined in climate talks, despite compelling evidence that climate change poses real threat to agriculture and food security in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, one person in seven does not get enough to eat. Mr Annan warned that \u201cclimate change is set to increase this dramatically, as global food production is predicted to go down by 25 per cent by 2050, while the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN) says it needs to grow by 70 per cent to feed the nine billion people we will have by then.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Annan said any new agriculture strategy must have \u201csmallholder farmers \u2013 many of them women \u2013 at its heart. With their full involvement we can achieve global food security and combat climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prime Minister of EthiopiaMeles Zenawi, who has been in power while his country has faced two famines, said, \u201cLet us\u00a0assume that a miracle happens and we limit global warming to below two degrees Celsius. Does that mean African agriculture will not be affected? We are already being affected. And no matter what happens in mitigation, we will be affected. We are in it, we are going to face it, and we better recognise that. So CSA is not an option, it is a must that is beyond the mitigation efforts at COP (the climate summit).<\/p>\n
Climate change undermines the resource base of agriculture \u2013 water and soil \u2013 so any new farming strategy must start by protecting those, Mr Zenawi said.<\/p>\n
Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Managing Director of the World Bank, said, \u201cInvestments in agriculture have fallen short in the last several decades. We have got to reverse that. We need agriculture that can move from being part of the (climate) problem to being part of solution.\u201d She held that CSA would provide a \u201ctriple win\u201d in agriculture, environment and food security.<\/p>\n
South African President Jacob Zuma said, \u201cCSA seeks to improve productivity by improving resilience. We need to link climate change, food security and poverty.\u201d He supported the idea of moving to organic agriculture, pointing out that it has a \u201csmaller footprint on the natural resource base\u201d.<\/p>\n
But not everybody is happy with the CSA initiative. International NGO ActionAid has warned that \u201cthe initiatives on the table are false solutions, fraught with social, environmental and economic risks.\u201d ActionAid\u2019s Climate Justice Coordinator Harjeet Singh said, \u201cClimate Smart Agriculture is the latest in a number of decoys designed to divert attention from filling the Green Climate Fund with public money.
\nFarmers need reliable and constant streams of revenue to effectively climate proof their harvests. It is dangerous to leave the fate of farmers in poor countries at the mercy of financial markets in rich ones.
\nSoil carbon capture \u2013 the core of Climate Smart Agriculture \u2013 is the process of transferring carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the soil through organic material such as manure. \u00a0Markets are being set up alongside the schemes that will allow rich nations to buy carbon credits in poor ones and count these towards their own carbon emission cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
ActionAid\u2019s report Say No to Soil Carbon Markets says that the long-term contracts farmers will be expected to sign will prevent them from having the flexibility they need to climate proof their harvests in the long term.\u201c<\/p>\n
Climate Smart Agriculture could tie farmers to contracts for up to 20 years. \u00a0When bound by one farming method, how can farmers adapt their crops to changing weather? Soil carbon capture is easily reversible. One hailstorm, drought or other extreme weather event will not only destroy their crops, but will render the soil carbon void,\u201d said Mr Singh.<\/p>\n
The report says, \u201cMost smallholders own less than two hectares of land. This means they will earn less than $3 a year from soil carbon markets at the current rate. How is this financially viable?\u201d\u00a0The NGO called on governments to halt the World Bank plan \u201cuntil the social, economic and environmental benefits to the poor have been proven.\u201d It said governments should \u201cfocus on providing smallholders with access to weather forecasts, climate (change) resistant local seeds, schemes to improve soil quality, irrigation services and appropriate green technology.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The global financial crisis has shown the gravity of waiting for a disaster before taking action,\u201d former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warned on Wednesday while speaking at the UN climate summit in Durban, South Africa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20000114,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761,763],"tags":[513,17827,546,50040326,50040707],"hashtags":[],"country":[50040750,50040754],"class_list":["post-20001645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate","category-food","tag-carbon-emissions","tag-climate-adaptation","tag-food-security","tag-soil","tag-the-third-pole","country-ethiopia","country-south-africa"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n