COP15: Agriculture and climate change: real problems, false solutions

Agriculture and climate change: real problems, false solutions

by Helena Paul, Almuth Ernsting, Stella Semino, Susanne Gura & Antje Lorch
EcoNexus, Biofuelwatch, Grupo de Reflexion Rural,  NOAH - Friends of the Earth Denmark, and The Development Fund Norway

Copenhagen, December 2009
www.econexus.info <http://www.econexus.info/>

The report looks at current carbon trading proposals for agriculture, especially soils. Some of the false solutions being proposed for climate change mitigation and adaptation in agriculture are analysed, including what is behind them and who is promoting them. A chapter on no-till agriculture, focusing on Argentina, casts doubt on the claims being made for carbon sequestration in the millions of hectares of chemical, no-till systems that already yield windfall profits from herbicide-tolerant GM seed. Claims that biochar, both large- and small-scale, can add to the soil’s capacity to be a carbon sink and also improve it, are compared with the lack of supporting evidence to date and the area of plantations that would be required. Intensifying industrial livestock production is being proposed at as a way to address its emissions, yet it is clear that rapidly reducing intensive production and consumption would have immediate climate benefits. New GM crops, trees and micro-organisms are being promised as the answer to environmental stresses arising from climate change and the efficient conversion of cellulose to energy. However, even if they could be developed, what would be the consequences for biodiversity, ecosystems forests and local communities?  “Marginal land” is currently proposed as an answer to potential conflicts between food and “renewable energy” production from plants and trees – but who uses this land and what would be the consequences of allowing the current spate of land-grabbing to intensify? Finally, the seeds and knowledge of small farmers is being lost at accelerating pace in the name of “modernising” agriculture or “increasing yields”, yet small farmers, most of whom are women, should be at the centre of research into the ways in which multifunctional agriculture can play a major role in both adaptation and mitigation. The report concludes that agriculture, particularly soils, must not be put into the carbon market, but should be a major focus in responding to climate change.