The submission, which will be considered by the AWG-LCA at its 14th session, highlights the impacts of slow-onset climate change on food production and describes steps that could be taken by negotiators to ensure that food security is not threatened.
31 March 2011: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has made a submission to the UNFCCC Secretariat on “Climate Change and Food Security in the Context of the Cancun Agreement.”
The submission highlights the impacts of slow-onset climate change on food production and describes steps that could be taken by negotiators to ensure that food security is not threatened. The FAO calls for food security to be included as an indicator of vulnerability to climate change, and for the global adaptation architecture to have a greater emphasis on slow-onset impacts of climate change.
The FAO underscores the need for climate-resilient staple food varieties to be developed, and for the collection and sharing of plant genetic materials, but calls for these efforts to respect breeders’ and farmers’ rights. The submission also highlights the trade-offs between competing land uses and the need for REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, as well as the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks) to include linkages to agriculture.
The submission will be considered by the 14th session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA 14). [FAO Press Release] [Publication: Climate Change and Food Security in the Context of the Cancun Agreements]