Global Forum for Food and Agriculture

Source: Doreen Salcher, Fotolia.com

With the subject "Agriculture and Climate Change – New Concept Proposals from Policymakers and Industry", the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection took up the challenges associated with climate change at the International Green Week and, at the same time, follow up on "food security" which was the main focus in 2009. Agriculture Ministers from around the globe were invited to come to Berlin to attend the International Agriculture Ministers' Panel Discussion and the Berlin Summit of Agriculture Ministers on 16 January 2010 during the Green Week in order to discuss experiences and concept proposals in the field of climate protection and the adaptation strategies pursued by their countries. In doing so, they can already draw on the outcome of the G8 Summit in L’Aquila and the UN Climate Conference of December 2009 and discuss in more concrete terms how the results can be implemented in the new climate regime from 2012.

Enhancing the resistance of agriculture

There has been a need for site-specific farming from time immemorial. This always includes adapting to a changing environment. What is new, however, is the speed at which the climate is changing and necessitating further adjustments.

The agricultural sector is especially exposed to the dramatic changes in the global climate. Many regions will suffer from the lower annual and seasonal precipitation levels. Climate change may result in heat waves, periods of drought, storms and floods with a corresponding impact on harvests. Agricultural production is therefore called upon to make a major effort of adjustment in order to secure the food production necessary to ensure food security whilst managing its resources in a sustainable manner. Our concern now is to enhance the resistance of farming to climate change.

The agricultural and food sectors can also adapt by making their own contribution to climate protection, e.g. by cutting their emissions, producing renewable energies and organic products and by promoting the carbon storage in soils used for farming.

Securing the food supply, conserving resources

The global fight against hunger and malnutrition is still one of the most important tasks facing the international community of nations. The challenge of having to provide nine billion people in the near future with an adequate and if possible well-balanced diet represents a mammoth task. Almost one billion people in the world are starving now and over two billion are suffering from malnutrition.

The agricultural sector will thus be required for the foreseeable future to achieve high yields in terms of quality and quantity in order to produce an adequate amount of food of sufficient quality in a sustainable manner. It is also well-known that the emissions of the greenhouse gases methane and laughing gas that arise in agricultural production due to natural processes will also increase as the volume of production rises. There are limits to the extent to which this conflict in goals can be alleviated.

It is beyond any doubt that man-made greenhouse gas emissions will have to be substantially curbed. This has consequences for our ways of life, the focus of new technologies and manufacturing practices, also in the food chain. Sustainable management of limited resources is needed now more than ever. Savings in particular have a direct impact. The focus must be placed on low-cost measures with great effects.

Sustainable forestry can make a particularly large contribution to climate protection worldwide. But at the same time, it also faces particular challenges in the face of climate change. It must on the one hand develop suitable measures of adaptation and on the other hand preserve forests as an important sink for carbon dioxide. In order to conserve forests for coming generations, policy and forest management decisions must plan far into the future and take into account production periods spanning anything from many decades to several centuries.

Creating the policy environment

The countries in the European Union are determined to take swift action in order to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. This will probably not suffice. We can already assume that the repercussions of climate change will be more serious than previously expected and will arise regardless of which action is taken to contain them. The EU has therefore resolved to pursue a comprehensive strategy in order to make the best possible adjustments, notably in agriculture, but also in all other policy areas. The European Commission highlighted the subject with its White Paper published in April 2009 "Adapting to climate change: Towards a European framework for action".

The Swedish Council Presidency will also focus particular attention on the issue of climate change in the second half of 2009. The Informal Meeting of EU Agriculture Ministers held in Växjö from 13 to 15 September 2009 also addressed the issues of agriculture and climate change and focused in particular on necessary strategies of adaptation in the agricultural sector.

The Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection has already coordinated its strategy on climate protection at national level with the federal states, which it spelled out in more concrete terms in its report on pro-active climate protection in the agricultural, forestry and food sectors and on the adaptation of agriculture and forestry to climate change.

This made is possible to create a common basis for political action in this area within Germany. The ensuing implementation process must now be continued and adapted to new requirements.

The report on active climate protection in the agriculture, forestry and food industries and on the adaptation of agriculture and forestry to climate change, published by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, is available for you to download at (www.bmelv.de/climatereport).