Events

If you are concerned with the coupled challenges of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while adapting to the impacts of climate change, and you have an interest in food supply chains, then this session will offer significant food for thought. Practitioners from the private sector will join researchers to share their insights. Following four keynote presentations, there will be an opportunity to question a panel of experts on how industry and research can respond to the twinned challenges of adaptation and mitigation, with particular reference to the implications for developing countries. This side-event will be held during the Planet Under Pressure (PuP) Conference, in London, UK.

PROGRAMME

Chair: Alice Bows, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester

Patricia Thornley, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester

Adaptation of the agricultural system to climate change is essential to ensure adequate future food supply. Existing policy frameworks to encourage greenhouse gas mitigation could impede adaptation and negatively impact on food security. This keynote will discuss how we need to think about mitigation and adaptation in tandem and how that demands a holistic, co-ordinated approach to land-use.

Andy Hill, Tesco

Organisations such as Tesco have an increasingly global reach, but recognise the need for adaptation and mitigation strategies across global supply chains. This talk will highlight the important role of retailers in helping to facilitate responses to these great challenges.

Emma Keller, Unilever

Manufacturers are at a highly influential interface between retailers and producers. This talk will summarise Unilever’s targets to improve the sustainability of sourcing and supply chain mitigation, with a particular focus on how they are engaging smallholders to increase their involvement within supply chains.

Henk van Rikxoort, Wageningen University and Research Centre

This talk will present results of a quantification study of emissions and carbon sequestration in different Latin American coffee production systems, explaining the development of a framework for climate change mitigation in coffee production systems and exploring the synergies between climate change mitigation and adaptation in coffee production systems.

PANEL DISCUSSION

The speakers will be joined on the panel by Arame Tall, a scientist and practitioner from Senegal, working on climate risk management among smallholder farmers.  She is allied with the International Research Institute on Climate and Society (IRI), Columbia University.

Key issues to be explored:

• How supply chain actors, particularly retailers that pivot between consumer choice and supply chain practice, can facilitate positive change towards mitigation and adaptation throughout the food system
• The pressures caused by climate impacts on product sourcing, agricultural practices and food supply chain resilience
• Inclusion of smallholder farmers in strategies and incentives for mitigation and adaptation
• Emerging approaches for overcoming key hurdles to chain-wide mitigation and adaptation, e.g. through better estimations of mitigation potential, means of monitoring verifying and reporting (MRV), understanding of the chief vulnerabilities in agricultural supply chains, and identification of the most appropriate means of supporting adaptation on the ground

CONVENORS

Alice Bows, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester, UK
Stephanie Daniels, Sustainable Food Lab, USA
Andy Jarvis, Theme Leader, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, Colombia
Sonja Vermeulen, Head of Research, CGIAR Research Program, on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, Denmark

Read more about the side-event on the official Planet Under Pressure Conference Webpage. For more information about CCAFS Planet under Pressure involvement, please visit our events page.