Brussels Development Briefing: Climate change, agriculture and food security
The next Brussels Development Briefing will focus on ‘Climate change, agriculture and food security: proven approaches and new investments’ on 27 September at 8:30 AM CET.
Climate change – both natural and anthropogenic – will lead to significant global and local changes in the near future. Agriculture is contributing significantly to GHG emmissions, but will also be among the sectors most severely impacted by changes in climate patterns. Climate change will affect all four dimensions of food security: food availability, food accessibility, food utilization and food systems stability.
The next Brussels Development Briefing will focus on ‘Climate change, agriculture and food security: proven approaches and new investments’.
Climate change – both natural and anthropogenic – will lead to significant global and local changes in the near future. Agriculture is contributing significantly to GHG emmissions, but will also be among the sectors most severely impacted by changes in climate patterns. Climate change will affect all four dimensions of food security: food availability, food accessibility, food utilization and food systems stability.
It will address issues related to agriculture and food security in a changing climate, and how agriculture can increase resilience to climate change effects.
In particular, it will:
- raise awareness in Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries on the key challenges posed to agriculture by climate changes;
- increase exchange of information and expertise on strategies to develop climate-smart agriculture and proven successes; and
- facilitate networking among development partners.
The briefing, wich will be held on 27 September, 2012 at 8:30 AM CET, is organized in collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).
Invitees include around 120 ACP-EU policy-makers and representatives of EU Member States, civil society groups, research networks and development practitioners, and international organizations based in Brussels.
The Briefing will be fully webstreamed in English and French.
Program
Panel 1: Agriculture, food security and climate change: What’s new?
This panel will present the key concepts, challenges and opportunities for agriculture and food security in relation to climate change. It will give an overview of the international negotiations on climate change and how they feature agriculture, especially in the context of ACP countries, and the farmers’ perspective on how progress can best be achieved. It will include an overview of climate finance for agriculture that is relevant to ACP countries.
Panellists:
- Agriculture under climate change: challenges and outlook
CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) - The status of agriculture in negotiations on climate change: update and outlook
George Wamukoya, Climate Change Advisor, COMESA - Planning for climate-smart landscapes
Tony Simons, Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre - View from ACP farmers: successes to date and needs for the future
Ishmael Sunga, CEO, The Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) - Leveraging finance for climate-smart agriculture: overview of funding mechanisms relevant to ACP countries
Charlotte Streck of Climate Focus, Director of Climate Focus and a former Senior Counsel with the World Bank, USA
Panel 2: Opportunities and innovations to bring climate-smart agriculture to scale
This panel will present a set of proven innovations to deliver climate-smart agriculture. It will present climate-smart interventions that work – socially, economically and environmentally – and could be scaled up in ACP agricultural and food systems.
Panellists:
- Scaling-up the implementation of climate-smart agriculture: innovations and successes
Keith Alverson, Head of Climate Change Adaptation and Terrestrial Ecosystems Branch and Climate Change Adaptation Unit, UNEP - Reaching scale through the private sector: the case of index-based weather insurance
K N Rao, CEO, Agricultural Insurance Company of India - Integrated national and regional approaches to climate-smart agriculture in: the Caribbean
Carlos Fuller, International and Regional Liaison Officer, Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) - Successes in climate adaptation and mitigation in the Pacific region
Taito Nakalevu, Project Manager, Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC), Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) - How farmers are linking food security, adaptation and mitigation in East Africa
Moses Tenywa, Director of Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo (MUARIK), Uganda
Conclusions