7 March 2012: Responding to a direct appeal from the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) will provide input on agriculture and climate change to the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the UNFCCC, to be held at the end of 2012.

During her keynote address to a technical forum on agriculture and climate change organized by IICA, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres called on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to become more involved in the global climate change negotiations and share with the rest of the world its experiences and ideas on mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural activities and adapting agriculture to the effects of climate change.

In response, IICA officials announced that their organization will begin immediately to systematize the knowledge and experience IICA has accumulated to date regarding protecting natural resources and adapting LAC agriculture to climate change. David Williams, Manager of IICA’s Agriculture, Natural Resources Management and Climate Change Program, underscored the role LAC countries can play in developing novel mitigation and adaptation measures.

The IICA forum included an exchange among member States about their current efforts, with Costa Rica’s Environment Ministry describing its effort to create a carbon market. Costa Rica’s Agriculture Ministry further discussed work with the livestock, rice, coffee, sugarcane and banana sectors to reduce GHG emissions.