Media Centre
Researchers Outline Food Security-Climate Change Road Map in Science
Modest advances for agriculture in Durban signal need for scientific input
WASHINGTON (19 JANUARY) — While last month’s climate negotiations in Durban made incremental progress toward helping farmers adapt to climate change and reduce agriculture’s climate footprint, a group of international agriculture experts, writing in the January 20 issue of Science magazine, urges scientists to lay the groundwork for more decisive action on global food security in environmental negotiations in 2012.
“Agriculture worldwide is being impacted by climate change and in less than 15 years global population will rise by one billion people,” said Sir John Beddington, lead author of the article ‘What Next for Agriculture After Durban?’ “Policy makers and scientists need to work together, quickly, to chart a course toward a sustainable global food system.” Read more »
Victories for food and farming in Durban climate deals
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (13 December 2011) - After a grueling two weeks of negotiations, where it looked at times like climate talks might be deadlocked, world leaders on Sunday agreed to a number of decisions including the Durban Platform, which contain some provisions for adaptation, progress on a green climate fund, and a deadline for governments to adopt a new universal legal agreement on climate change by 2015.
Regrettably, the outcomes from Durban do not go far enough to hold global temperatures at a two-degree warmer world, nor is there sufficient finance or appropriate mechanisms in place to tackle the major adaptation challenges faced by least developed countries. But at least there were some outcomes that may eventually help poor farmers deal with climate change, which threatens food security among the most vulnerable. Read more »
Finding tomorrow's agriculture, today
Scientists Reveal Where Growing Conditions Today Mirror Future Climates, as World Becomes Living Lab for Adaptation
Maize farmers in South Africa and soybean growers in China can see “climate analogues” for 2030 in present-day South America and other places
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA (8 December 2011) — With climate change posing a threat to food production around the world, scientists are developing a form of virtual time travel that can offer farmers in many countries a glimpse of their future by identifying regions where growing conditions today match those that will exist 20 years from now, according to a new report from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).
“Climate Analogues: Finding Tomorrow’s Agriculture Today” (PDF) is an effort by CCAFS to make climate change adaptation a more tangible endeavor by encouraging the exchange of knowledge between communities around the world regarding current agriculture practices that can help farmers maintain productivity in the future, despite potentially dramatic shifts in growing conditions. Read more »
Leading Agricultural Organisations Issue Joint Appeal to COP17 Climate Negotiators at All-Day Event in Durban
Announcement highlights the need for long-term investment and support for improved food security, farmer resilience and climate mitigation efforts in agriculture
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA: A group of 16 of the world’s leading agricultural organisations (including three United Nations agencies, the World Bank, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), FANRPAN, the Global Forum on Agricultural Research, Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) and the World Farmers’ Organisation) has jointly endorsed a letter calling on COP17 climate negotiators to take concrete action to include agriculture in the text of the climate agreement.
The full text of the letter and list of endorsers can be viewed here. Read more »
Agriculture: A Call to Action for COP17 Climate Change Negotiators
Today, a coalition of Agricultural research organizations, including the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the UN Food and Agriculture Agency, the UN World Food Programme, and others have called upon climate change negotiators to recognize the essential role of agriculture in the fight against climate change.
The call was issued as political leaders gather in Durban, South Africa, to decide on the future of a global climate agreement. The agriculture groups have also organized Agriculture and Rural Development Day on 3 December, a daylong event to share best practises on climate-smart agriculture and show how agriculture is part of the climate solution.
Full text of open letter: Read more »
Global Commission Charts Pathway For Achieving Food Security in Face of Climate Change
Scientific experts outline concrete steps toward a sustainable global food system
COPENHAGEN (16 November 2011) — In the lead up to UN global climate talks in Durban, South Africa later this month, an independent global commission of eminent scientists today released a set of concrete recommendations to policy makers on how to achieve food security in the face of climate change. Based on a thorough review of existing research, the commissioners urged immediate, coordinated action toward transforming the food system to meet current and future threats to food security and environmental sustainability.
The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change’s “Summary for Policy Makers” outlines crucial policy responses to the global challenge of feeding a world confronted by climate change, population growth, poverty, food price spikes and degraded ecosystems. The seven high-level recommendations include significantly raising the level of global investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems in the next decade; sustainably intensifying agricultural production on the existing land base while reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and reducing losses and waste in the food system. Read more »
Events
Week on Agricultural Innovation in Africa
25-31 May 2013
Nairobi, Kenya
Bonn Climate Change Conference (SBSTA)
3-14 June 2013
Bonn, Germany
Contact
For general media-related inquiries, v [dot] meadu [at] cgiar [dot] org (please contact Vanessa Meadu).
From the blog
CCAFS People speak
CCAFS Coordinating Unit - University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Science, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Rolighedsvej 21, DK-1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark, phone +45 35331046; Email ccafs [at] cgiar [dot] org, EAN 5790000279012
Lead Center - International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)