Side Event on “Climate Change and Agriculture: The Role of Trade”

At the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development

11th May 2009 • Co-organised with IPC

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The global agricultural sector must meet three major tests in the 21st century: 1. It must adapt to climate change and, where possible, play a role in climate change mitigation; 2. it must provide sustainable global food security for a growing population and 3. it must make good on its promise of poverty alleviation - since some 70 percent of the world’s poorest people live in rural sectors and rely on agriculture. The risk exists that these three sets of challenges will be addressed separately, which would reduce their chances of success. Focusing on the climate change challenge alone, for example, could have negative impacts for food security and poverty alleviation. Such negative impacts for food security and poverty alleviation, in turn, would weaken efforts to curb climate. The world’s population will not benefit from climate change mitigation unless it enjoys food security – nor can it contribute to climate change mitigation or adaptation unless it has food security. Food security, particularly for the world’s poorest populations, and poverty alleviation requires greater investment in the agricultural sectors of developing countries. Yet, such investment is lacking in part due to a distorted agricultural trade regime, which is still subject to high levels of subsidies, tariff and non-tariff barriers, and care must be taken not to create disproportionate or unjustifed trade barriers under the guise of addressing climate change.

It is crucial to identify and better understand the connections between these three sets of challenges in order to arrive at the appropriate policies to address them. Among the important questions to be explored are:
· What will climate change mean for future agricultural production, and in turn for international trade flows?
· Which types of agricultural policies and practices need to be pursued to achieve global food security? What role do such policies and practices play in turn in climate change mitigation and adaptation?
· How can poor smallholder farmers achieve greater income and food security? What does climate change mitigation and adaptation mean in this context?
· What is the role of trade in food security and poverty alleviation? Can trade policy contribute to mitigate climate change, reduce developing countries’ vulnerability and enhance their resilience to climate change challenges?

Recognizing the need to combat these major challenges in a coordinated manner, ICTSD and IPC propose to create an interdisciplinary platform of climate change, agricultural and trade experts to promote increased policy coherence, to ensure effective climate change mitigation and adaptation, food security and a more open and equitable global food system. Through research and dialogues, this initiative seeks to assist the UNFCCC negotiators understand the linkages to agriculture and trade, and likewise, inform agricultural policy, trade policy experts and stakeholders about the policy inter-linkages between these three fields.

This side event organised by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) in collaboration with the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council (IPC) was part of this initiative. Its objective was to raise awareness on issues at the interface of climate change, agricultural policy and trade.

In 2008 the International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council (IPC) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) launched The ICTSD-IPC Platform on Climate Change, Agriculture and Trade: Promoting Policy Coherence. This interdisciplinary platform of climate change, agricultural and trade experts seeks to promote increased policy coherence to ensure effective climate change mitigation and adaptation, food security and a more open and equitable global food system. This side event is part of this initiative.