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CLIMATE CHANGE WILL AFFECT AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY IN MANY COUNTRIES

• 17.05.2020
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2019

CLIMATE CHANGE WILL AFFECT AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY IN MANY COUNTRIES

Climate change will have significant implications for agriculture and food security. By the middle of this century, higher average temperatures, changes in precipitation, rising sea levels, an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, as well as the possibility of an increase in damage from pests and disease, are expected to affect crop and livestock production, as well as fisheries and aquaculture.

This impact will be uneven across regions and countries. In low-latitude regions, where most developing and least developed countries are located, agriculture is already being adversely affected by climate change, specifically, by a higher frequency of droughts and floods. For developing countries, climate change could exacerbate the food security challenges they already experience.

Climate change impacts will be location specific, with significant variations across crops and regions. Arid and semi-arid regions will be exposed to even lower precipitation and higher temperatures and, consequently, experience yield losses. Conversely, countries in temperate areas, many of which have developed economies, are expected to benefit from warmer weather during their growing season. As a result, climate change could exacerbate existing inequalities and further widen the gap between developed and developing countries.

Agricultural Trade Can Contribute To Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Efforts

 Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, agricultural trade patterns have evolved in line  with economic growth in emerging economies. In the coming years, agricultural trade could undergo further changes, reflecting the uneven and disproportionate impact of climate change on agricultural sectors across the globe. As climate change alters the comparative advantage and competitiveness of agriculture across regions and countries, some nations could lose while others could gain.

International trade could play a particularly important role in adaptation efforts, contributing towards food security in many countries. In the short term, by moving food from surplus to deficit areas, trade can provide an important mechanism to address production shortfalls due to extreme weather events. In the long term, international trade could contribute towards adjusting agricultural production in an efficient manner across countries.

Global agricultural market integration should reinforce the adaptive role of trade in terms of increasing availability of and access to food in the countries that will be negatively affected by climate change. Nevertheless, global agricultural market integration would also affect the distribution of gains and losses between producers and consumers. Small-scale family farmers in low-latitude regions could lose, while consumers of food could gain. A reverse result is expected in temperate regions.

Appropriate agricultural and trade policies are important in strengthening the adaptation role of trade and balancing the multiple objectives of the sector. Agriculture needs both to adjust to the effects of climate change and to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. At the same time, to meet growing demand, agriculture in 2050 will need to produce almost 50 percent more food, feed and biofuel than in 2012. Producing more with less, while preserving natural resources and enhancing the livelihoods of small-scale family farmers, will be a key challenge for the future.

Transformative changes in agriculture and food systems appear to be economically and technically feasible. Domestic support measures and trade policies can promote productivity growth and ensure that the international trading system is open, fair and transparent. At the same time, these policies should help both agriculture and trade adapt to and mitigate climate change.

Hunger and malnutrition, poverty, and climate change must be addressed together in order to meet Sustainable Development Goal 2 to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. Multilateral agreements and mechanisms allow for global collective action and encourage the alignment of multiple objectives, such as: eradicating hunger; achieving sustainable agriculture; strengthening global partnerships and cooperation in the context of trade; and fighting climate change.

Multilateral Agreements: The Mutually Supportive Role Of The Paris Agreement And WTO Commitments For Agriculture

In 2015, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change set the long-term goal of keeping the rise in global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. The Agreement also enables each country to determine its own targets and what it considers to be its fair contribution towards limiting the global average temperature increase. Targets, and the general approach to meeting them, are reflected in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – a central component of the Agreement.

There is a clear willingness of countries to respond to climate change by investing in and transforming agriculture sectors. Developing countries in particular highlight the importance of agriculture and food security for adaptation in their NDCs; some countries specify agriculture sectors as important in their mitigation targets. Nevertheless, NDCs remain broad and most do not include specific policies.

Much of the work to translate the Paris Agreement and the NDCs into concrete climate interventions in agriculture is in the making. A wide range of policy instruments is available, from investments in innovative technologies to subsidies that provide incentives to farmers to adopt climate-smart agriculture practices, and regulations to reduce emissions of agricultural activities to carbon taxes. Most of these policy instruments are covered by the WTO agreements, especially the Agreement on Agriculture, which aims to limit the distortionary impact of support measures on production and trade and to establish a fair and non-discriminatory trading system that will enhance market access and improve the livelihoods of farmers around the world. The challenge will be to strengthen the mutually supportive role of the Paris Agreement and the WTO agreements.

Policies To Combat Climate Change And Promote Agricultural Development And Trade Should Be Integrated

 In principle, there is no fundamental conflict between policies under international climate change frameworks and trade rules. Measures to promote adaptation and mitigation in agriculture will be part of broader agricultural and food security policies, and thus will be subject to rules and disciplines of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). Significant progress in adaptation and mitigation can be achieved through measures that do not distort trade. These include spending more on innovative technologies and investing in their adoption, as well as extending climate-smart agricultural practices that promote productivity, adapt to climate change and increase carbon sequestration. Expenditure on environmental programmes and ecosystem services that can reduce the negative external effects of emissions generated by agricultural production are additional measures that pose minimal or no distortion to production and trade.

Measures such as market price support and some types of input subsidies can distort trade. But some well-targeted climate-smart subsidies may be an effective instrument to provide incentives to farmers to adopt technologies and practices that promote climate change adaptation and mitigation, or to obtain insurance and hedge against the risks of extreme weather events. Such policies can provide a climate-smart stimulus to agriculture and effectively address the trade-offs between food security and climate change objectives.

Effective climate-smart support to farmers can also improve the comparative advantage of agriculture in countries that will be negatively affected by changing climate, allowing them to become competitive and achieve a better balance in export and import performance. Such measures will be crucial for developing countries that may experience a considerable increase in their net food imports due to climate change. For countries that may be subject to significant climate-induced problems, safety nets will be necessary both at the international level, to alleviate potential pressures in funding food imports, and at the national level through emergency food reserves and social protection programmes that target the poor and the vulnerable.

Trade policies can contribute towards well-functioning international markets to which countries that experience production shortfalls due to weather shocks can resort in order to ensure food security. Global market integration can reinforce this role of trade in adaptation, as long as trade policies are combined with climate-smart domestic measures and investments.

Trade could also be central in climate change mitigation efforts. If trade could provide the necessary signals to farmers to produce low carbon footprint products, emissions could be reduced globally. In practice, this would necessitate the imposition of a carbon tax (or an equivalent mitigation measure) on agricultural products domestically, combined with a corresponding tariff adjustment at the border to discriminate against high carbon footprint imports. Although WTO provisions offer flexibility for waivers or exemptions from complying with the non-discrimination principle, difficulties in the interpretation and application of these provisions could arise due to the lack of an internationally agreed definition and measurement of carbon footprint. Nevertheless, alternative options include carbon labelling of agricultural products that could shape consumer preferences and contribute to reducing emissions from agriculture.

While sufficient space for policy discussions needs to be pursued at the intersection of the WTO and the Paris Agreement, policies should not negatively impact on other countries, especially developing ones, by restricting trade. Developed countries are clearly in a different position when making their choices than  low-income developing countries. This is especially true for developing countries where agriculture is characterized by high emissions and will be particularly hit by climate change both in terms of production and of increase in pests and diseases. The different challenges faced by developed and developing countries are  recognized in the Paris Agreement and in the WTO agreements through the principle of differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and the special and differential treatment of developing countries, respectively.

Discussing and implementing policies for climate change adaptation and mitigation will enable the transformative change that is necessary to make agriculture meet the challenges of our time

Source :AGRICULTURAL TRADE, CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD SECURITY.Agricultural Commodıty Markets The State. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 2018