Events

ONLINE DEBATE: Does small-scale climate adaptation pay?

Join an online debate together with an expert panel on the economic and environmental benefits of climate change adaptation for smallholder farmers! Photo: N. Palmer

Join an online debate together with an expert panel on the economic and environmental benefits of climate change adaptation for smallholder farmers!

Contribute your questions and comments via the twitter hashtag #adaptingpays or on the live event page.

TIME: 14:00-15:00 CET

From preventing flood damage in Bangladeshi villages, to stabilising landslide-prone slopes in Turkey and growing more citrus fruit in Bolivia’s arid highlands, measures to help small farmers adapt to the impacts of climate change in a warmer world are starting to pay off.

An upcoming IFAD report puts hard numbers on the economic and financial benefits generated by small-scale adaptation projects it runs around the world. These include cost-savings from avoided disasters, and increased incomes. There are also advantages from greenhouse gas emissions reductions and biodiversity gains.

Our online discussion will explore the report’s findings, and tackle key related issues: How to get more climate finance to small farmers on the ground? How to strengthen and expand analysis of the costs and benefits of small-scale adaptation? Who is best placed to help small farmers adapt to climate risks? How can small farmers get a bigger say in national and international adaptation policies? And what must U.N. climate talks deliver to support them better?

Panelists:

Gernot Laganda, Climate Change Adaptation Specialist, Environment and Climate Division, IFAD

Stephen Twomlow, Regional Climate and Environment Specialist for East and Southern Africa, IFAD, Kenya

Sonja Vermeulen, Head of Research, CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)

Dyborn Chibonga, Chief Executive Officer, National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi 

Vincent Vadez, Principal Scientist, ICRISAT, India