Sustainable agriculture is part of solution to climate change, says FAO in 2nd Committee

“The window to curb global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is closing and success depends on a concerted and scaled-up effort. Sustainable agriculture has a critical role to play,” said Carla Mucavi, Director of the FAO Liaison Office to the United Nations in New York, during the Seventy-third Session of the United Nations General Assembly Second Committee debate on Sustainable Development at the UN Headquarters on 15 October.

Referring to the stark findings by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Climate Change, Mucavi noted that agriculture can no longer be seen in opposition to efforts to curb climate change. She also welcomed the Koronivia Decision of the Twenty-Third Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that recognized agriculture as part of the solution to climate change.

“Adapting agriculture to climate change and mitigating its greenhouse gas emissions will go hand in hand as we shift to more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive food systems,” Mucavi said, noting the importance of these efforts for poor rural communities as 75 per cent of the world’s poor reside in rural areas and are particularly hard hit by disasters and extreme events.

She also shared evidence that disaster risk reduction is essential and effective. Preliminary impact assessment of the response to droughts in 2017 revealed that acting early helped save lives and livelihoods and reduced the costs of humanitarian response and dependency on food assistance. In Kenya, every US dollar invested in early animal feed distribution had a return of 3.5 US dollars for vulnerable herders, resulting from lower animal mortality and increased milk production.

Finally, Mucavi recalled that Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are particularly threatened by natural disasters and climate change. She informed the Committee that FAO, UN DESA and OHRLLS launched the Global Action Programme on Food Security and Nutrition for SIDS in the context of climate change. Mucavi also noted that, through an inter-regional initiative, FAO and partners have elaborated Programming Frameworks to implement the Global Action Programme in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean SIDS.