Agriculture Not A Part of Paris Climate Agreement

Agricultural growth, productivity and prices as well as a global initiative to end hunger by 2030, are being threatened by modifications in climate, according to the International Food Policy Research’s new report. But still, Paris’ new global agreement to handle climatic changes doesn’t even mention agriculture in its documents.

The report states that in the Philippines, climate changes are likely to decrease cereals’ per capita consumption by 24% and that of fruits and vegetables by 13%. This reduction translates into the absolute figure of an extra 1.4 million people being hungry by 2030 and 2.5 million people by 2050.

The failure of Paris to pay attention to agriculture has been attributed to the fact that developing nations have been defying the involvement of agriculture since a very long time. The developing nations believe that an attempt to curb hunger will be accompanied by the pressure of decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural lands. Emissions from farms have been continuously increasing, contributing 11% to the global emissions in 2010, according to a study by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2015.

Agriculture was just indirectly mentioned in the climate agreement of Paris, stating that it should be ensured that people have sufficient food to eat. Despite the fact that global climate change agreement incorporated food safety for the first time, the FAO has accepted Paris’ agreement. “This is a game changer for the 800 million people still suffering from chronic hunger and for 80 percent of the world’s poor who live in rural areas and earn income — and feed their families — from agriculture,” said José Grazing da Silva, the Director General of the FAO.