Your planet needs You! UNite to combat climate change

On 5 June, join your family, community, city and country to celebrate World Environment Day and pledge your commitment to protecting and renewing our shared environment.

World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), also created in 1972, uses World Environment Day to stimulate awareness of the environment and increase political attention and public action. It is hosted every year by a different country and commemorated with an international exposition through the week of 5 June.

This year’s theme is ‘Your Planet Needs You! UNite to Combat Climate Change.’  UNEP says the theme reflects the individual responsibility of each and every one of us to protect the planet. It also affirms the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen in December.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon encouraged people around the world to take concrete steps toward making the planet greener and cleaner.

“Switch off the lights. Take public transportation. Recycle. Plant a tree. Clean up your local park. Hold corporations responsible for their environmental practices. And urge your government representatives to Seal the Deal in Copenhagen,” he said.

Mexico to host

Mexico is this year’s global host of the annual, week-long United Nations celebrations. In recent years, Latin America has taken a growing practical and political role in the fight against climate change, including its growing participation in the carbon markets.

Mexico is a leading partner in UNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign. The country has spearheaded the pledging and planting of some 25 per cent of the trees under the campaign. UNEP has now launched the Seven Billion Tree Campaign. This aims to see more than one new tree planted for every person alive by the Copenhagen meeting as one empowering symbol of the global public’s desire for action by their political leaders on the greatest challenge for this generation.

Agriculture must feature prominently in Copenhagen

Over a decade ago, most countries joined an international treaty – the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – to find ways to reduce global warming and to cope with the inevitable temperature increases. More recently, a number of nations approved an addition to the treaty: the Kyoto Protocol, which has more powerful and legally binding measures.

In 2012 the Kyoto Protocol runs out. To keep the process moving forward, there is an urgent need for a new climate protocol. At the conference in Copenhagen in December, the parties of the UNFCCC meet for the last time on government level before the climate agreement needs to be renewed.

“The international community has recognized and acknowledged the strong link between agriculture and climate change,” said Sheila Mwanundu, Senior Technical Adviser, Environment at IFAD.

“That is why it is absolutely vital to ensure that agriculture has a prominent place on the agenda of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations in Copenhagen in December.

“Simply put, governments around the world need to dramatically increase investment in pro-poor agricultural research and extension, market access and institutional innovations if fundamental goals on climate change adaptation and mitigation are to be met. What is critical are cost-effective ways for the more than half of the world’s poorest people who manage and depend on agriculture to better adapt to climate change.”

The agriculture-climate change link

Climate change is expected to put an estimated 49 million more people at risk of hunger by 2020. It poses a serious threat to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially during a period of global economic recession, when resources needed to cope with climate change may be reassigned. 

Agriculture and deforestation account for 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. These two sectors can therefore contribute to reducing emissions if agricultural practices are changed.

Poor rural people in developing countries are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The negative impacts on their crop yields are already being felt and will be increasingly severe, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and other tropical regions. Desertification and land degradation processes are being exacerbated by changes in rainfall patterns, and livelihoods of coastal communities are being negatively affected by rising sea-levels. In many areas, natural resource productivity is at risk and biodiversity is under threat.

Around the world, resource-poor farmers and pastoralists are trying to adapt to variations in temperatures and rainfall patterns, and to new plant and animal diseases. Agricultural research and innovation systems that build on the knowledge and innovation capacity of local farmers play a key role in helping people to adapt while improving their productivity and income.

Since rural people manage vast areas of land and forest, they are important players in natural resource management and carbon sequestration, but are usually without significant compensation. Policy research is required to develop systems to reward rural communities for the environmental services they provide.
Technologies that reduce exposure to shocks and enhance carbon capture and storage include reforestation, conservation tillage, soil and water conservation, agroforestry, rehabilitation of degraded land, and better livestock management practices. IFAD has invested in all of these areas over the past 30 years.

Rome-based UN agencies working together

Meeting the challenge of climate change requires the support and coordinated action of the international community as a whole.

Over the years, the three Rome-based food agencies – IFAD, FAO and WFP – have continued to strengthen their collaboration on climate change. At the country level, the three agencies are committed to help developing countries build their own capacities to address climate change and gain access to international financing and incentive mechanisms for climate change adaptation and mitigation, including technology transfer. At the international level, they are working with all countries to build effective international mechanisms and governance systems for addressing climate change.

The Rome-based agencies’ collaboration on climate change mitigation and adaptation continues in the context of the negotiating meetings leading up to Copenhagen in December 2009.