|
|||||
|
Hague Action Plan Puts Climate-Smart Agriculture on Cancun Radar
Author: Steve ZwickAbout This SeriesAll week long, we'll be bringing you news from the Hague, where Ecosystem Marketplace publisher Forest Trends is supporting an Investment Fair designed to spark concrete action by bringing social entrepreneurs and social investors together under the umbrella of the United Nations.Part One: Hague Summit Tackling Climate Change and Poverty with Sustainable Agriculture offers an introduction to high-level meeting under which the Investment Fair is operating. Part Two: Betting on the Farm: Can Soil Carbon Cut Emissions and Improve the World's Farmlands? offers and in-depth look at the technologies being used to measure the amount of carbon captured in the soil. Part Three Measuring the Carbon Emissions of the World's Farms examines the Global Agricultural Climate Assessment, a project being presented at the Investment Fair. Part Four Rockefeller Foundation Pledges $1.5 Million for Climate-Smart Agriculture discusses the foundation's commmitment to fund projects that emphasize low-emission farming. Part Five Dutch Government Invests in African Carbon Fund highlights a deal made during the investment fair. Part Six First-Ever African Soil-Carbon Deal Signed at Hague Investment Fair offers a glimpse into this ground-breaking deal. Part Seven Money Flows to Green Ag and Farming at Hague Investment Fair describes the development of the Fair as well as its accomplishments. Part Eight Hague Action Plan Puts Climate-Smart Agriculture on Cancun Radar wraps up the week and looks to how it will impact the Cancun negotiations. Part Nine Green Gold gives a in-depth look at a project using carbon finance to support Mongolian farmers Modern farming churns up soil and releases carbon, which contributes to climate change. Climate-smart agriculture turns farms into carbon sinks and can slash greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 15%, but it's also more labor-intensive than modern farming methods. Carbon finance can make it worthwhile, which is why these 80 countries want to see it on the agenda for year-end climate talks. Eighth in a SeriesTweetShare 5 November 2010 | Delegates from more than 80 nations have endorsed an action plan designed to ratchet up schemes that promote promote “Climate-Safe” agriculture, which employs no-till farming, mulching, and other labor-intensive but climate-friendly practices to capture carbon in soil rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. Up to 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide currently come from agriculture, with an additional 17% coming from deforestation – which is often caused by farmers moving into forests after depleting their soil. The Hague Action Plan, which was cobbled together over the past week at the International Conference on Agriculture, Food Security, and Climate Change in the Hague, Netherlands, aims to promote climate-friendly agriculture through education, knowledge-sharing and research – as well as by investing in climate-friendly agricultural projects and techniques and improving trade. An Investment Fair on the sidelines of the Hague meeting funneled roughly $2 million into climate-smart agriculture in Africa, and the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, Henk Bleker, says he will present the week's outcomes at year-end climate-change talks in Cancun, Mexico. “I will make sure that climate smart agriculture that can feed more people and is better for the environment will stay on the agenda,” he says. “I will present the ‘The Hague Action Plan’ myself at the climate conference in Cancun, Mexico.” The Action Plan also contains a list of actions that countries and organizations should take to stimulate this new and climate smart agriculture so more people can be fed and less carbon is emitted. The countries have spoken out their commitment towards these actions. Worldwide there are about 2.2 billion farmers, and current projections say they will have to feed nine billion people in 2050. The lack of attention for agriculture has lead to lower yields, lack of knowledge and fewer investments. Poverty is common for smallholder farms in many developing countries.  Steve Zwick is Managing Editor of Ecosystem Marketplace. He can be reached at SZwick@ecosystemma rketplace.com. |
| Search Specific to This Section |
Keyword Search:
