COP23 - Agriculture Advantage

The 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) is currently taking place in Bonn, Germany. Shedding light on Fiji and other Pacific islands most vulnerable to sea-level rise, COP23 stresses the severity of climate change impacts and the urgency to prepare adaptation strategies. 

Agriculture has an important place in climate-action discussions, recognized as both a contributor and part of a solution to mitigating climate change. There is increasing mentions of ''agriculture advantage'' as well as ''climate-smart agriculture'' that emphasize the importance of climate resilience and mitigation through sustainable agricultural developments.

Agricultural adaptation measures

According to a report by the CGIAR, the agricultural sector is well represented in the Parties’ Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) under the Paris Agreement. The INDCs refer to pledges and commitments to adaptation and mitigation measures. Agriculture mitigation and/or adaptation measures were mentioned in 131 INDCs (Richards et al., 2015)

102 Parties included agricultural adaptation in their INDCs, and the top 5 measures of adaptation included the livestock, crop, fisheries, irrigation and water management sub-sectors.

Figure 1: Number of adaptation measures mentioned in INDCs/ CGIAR

The map above, provided by the CGIAR report, shows the number of adaptation measures, by country. Clearly, African and Asian parties include more adaptation measures in their INDCs. Around 16 African countries include 7 or more adaptation measures.