7 November 2010: The Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change took place from 31 October-5 November 2010 at the World Forum in The Hague, the Netherlands, around the theme “It’s Down 2 Earth.”

The Conference and its Ministerial Roundtable-sessions initiated a roadmap for action linking agriculture-related investments, food security and climate change. The “living roadmap” contains sections on: policies and strategies for climate-smart agriculture; tools and technologies for climate-smart agriculture; financing for transformational change; forging partnerships for climate-smart agriculture; and the way forward.

Participants convened in plenary and working group sessions throughout the week. The working groups focused on exploring issues, challenges and opportunities and stocktaking of innovations from case studies around the world. The Conference included an investment fair, which had focused discussions on: opportunities and challenges for project investments in Africa; managing carbon emissions through supply chains; creative incentives to reduce the destruction of natural forests from major agricultural commodities; whether large-scale commodity production can be turned from a leading cause of deforestation to a driver of sustainability; and public private partnerships.

The Conference was a follow-up to the Shared Vision Statement agreed at the 17th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 17) in May 2009, and aimed to further develop the agriculture, food security and climate change agenda. It was organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation of the Netherlands, in cooperation with Ethiopia, Viet Nam, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, the World Bank, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). A follow-up conference will be hosted by Viet Nam in 2012. [IISD-RS Coverage] [Conference Website] [Roadmap for Action]