Make no doubt about it. No way a week's work wraps on Fridays at the Bonn Climate Talks.
In The Campaigner’s perspective: The Daily Tck, XXL Weekend Special, GCCA Communications Director Christian Teriete provides a succinct overview of week one accomplishments; calls for more access for civic participation in closed door meetings; and hints at a youth action next week -- a "mini-1.5˚C-campaign for the second week of this session that will see daily actions calling for greater levels of ambition in the face of a rapid increase in global emissions...."
Working the weekend at the UNFCCC…. Despite a beautiful day outside, Anna Collins reports live from the Conference where numerous official meetings are underway. She is following the sessions online when a Chair opens his group to the public. It's an event which, ironically, specifically focuses on civil society participation ...
With many of the sessions now going on behind closed doors here, at the minute as civil society participants we are not having an easy time even finding out what’s going on, never mind having our voices heard in this process. Today the Chair of one of the groups opened up his session to allow civil society in, he even arranged for it to be in one of the big rooms so as many people as wanted could attend.
Mind, since the session was about civil society participation it would have been kind of off not to.
But anyway it wasn’t a given, so it was important that we turned up and took part. He even told us to come forward from our usual seats at the back of the room and fill up any empty seats at the front (where the countries usually sit).
No agriculture, No deal!"
Meanwhile, Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) reported in yesterday on a highly significant meeting Actions needed to halt deforestation and promote climate-smart agriculture: Theme 3: Pro-poor Climate Change Mitigation
Their report "Unless we address agriculture, REDD will not be successful!" evaluates the need to integrate agriculture into climate change policy, re-examines the connections between agriculture and deforestation and discusses how successful mitigation and food security outcomes can be achieved through the integration of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) and agriculture.
The panel included Lini Wollenberg of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS); Peter Holgrem, Director, Environment, Climate Change and Bioenergy Division Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Joachim von Braun director of the Center for Development Research(ZEF), University of Bonn; Frances Seymour, Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR); and George Wamukoya from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA.
Some snippets:
Wollenberg: “unless we address agriculture, REDD will not be successful." Cited a recent report that found insufficient incorporation of agricultural causes of deforestation in planning for REDD. Key factors linking REDD and agriculture were identified as linking mitigation and adaptation policies, boosting the efficiency and productivity of agricultural systems, and strengthening local knowledge of demand-side and market pressures as well as tenure and land access rights.
Holmgren: "Want to deal with deforestation?” It's the agriculture, s**!” Maintained that agriculture, climate and development policies must deal with multiple objectives: to increase productivity, resilience and reduce emissions and said current climate change financing constitutes little more than a fraction today's investments in agriculture, let alone addressing a shift to "climate-smart agriculture."
von Braun: "Agriculture is not the enemy of REDD. "Unproductive agriculture is. Show us good project to learn from!" The growing emphasis on food security has not done enough to connect the role climate change plays in long-term planning to address hunger and deforestation. Cmpetition for biomass makes REDD difficult to implement, but "climate-smart agriculture" will assist in lowering crop costs and increasing productivity.
Seymour: Debunked notions that a) there is “a zero-sum tradeoff between protecting forests and enhancing food security” and b) that intensification of agriculture is enough to reduce deforestation.
Wamukoya: REDD+ cannot succeed without the advancement of agriculture and discussed a re-evaluation of its role as outlined in the Bali Action Plan
Read the entire report, which includes slideshows of the presentations. Also CGIAR's report on The impacts of climate change on key crops: spotlight on ongoing research and the new Meridian report Addressing Agriculture in Climate Change Negotiations.
MSM Coverage of Bonn Talks
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