Advanced BioFuels USA

NACSAA Chairman Fred Yoder, Steering Committee member A.G. Kawamura and Ernie Shea, the alliance’s coordinator, are impressing upon UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) delegates in Bonn that farm-based solutions are needed to help address the threat that has grown rapidly in recent years. The urgency to develop means to address challenging climatic conditions has never been greater.

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NACSAA representatives in Bonn are impressing upon delegates there that action – transformational change, even – is needed now and must encompass all aspects of the global food system, including not only production, but transportation, packaging, marketing and even consumer patterns.

With the support of policy makers at all levels of government and smart business investments, well-managed agricultural landscapes can offer climate solutions through the three pillars of climate-smart agriculture: intensified production; adaptation that can make crops more resilient; and the sequestration and reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are derived through conservation practices and low-carbon biofuels.

Over the weekend, NACSAA’s representatives first participated in the annual Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture (GACSA) conference. There, Kawamura, a third-generation farmer from California and co-chair of Solutions from the Land, delivered the opening keynote address. He outlined how agriculture can be a global solution platform for meeting climate and sustainable development goals.

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In remarks during the climate conference’s closing Koronivia Joint Agriculture Work session today, (Ernie) Shea implored the delegates to embrace and follow the guiding principles NACSAA’s representatives have developed to shape the formation of the Koronivia work program. These include:

• Science-based decision making should be the foundation for the adoption of climate smart technologies and practices for sustainable agriculture and global food production.
• Production and production efficiency per unit of land must increase going forward to meet the food needs of the future while incurring no net environmental cost.
• Outcomes (rather than means) applicable to any scale of enterprise must be emphasized, without predetermining technologies, production type or design components.

Shea reminded the delegates that there is no silver bullet solution for enhancing the resilience of agriculture. The agreement they strike must ultimately embrace a systems approach that recognizes the tremendous diversity of agricultural landscapes and ecosystems and enables producers to utilize the technologies, systems and practices that best support their farming operations.

Most importantly, Shea stressed that farmers must be at the center of all discussions and decision-making and that significant input will be needed from a wide range of agricultural stakeholders. They must include technical agricultural experts drawn from farmer organizations, academia, industry, and international and regional organizations, especially those outside of the UNFCCC, which has overseen global conferences on climate for 25 years.

Also heard during the Koronivia session this week was California Secretary of Food and Agriculture Karen Ross, a friend of NACSAA who outlined the Healthy Soils and Climate Smart Agriculture initiatives in her state, the fifth largest economy in the world. She cited President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s call to action during the height of the Dust Bowl era: “A nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.”

At the heart of all the arguments made on behalf of Climate Smart Agriculture this week, the prevailing sentiment – and the best approach to meeting the world’s climate needs – is that those who tend the earth are in the foremost position to protect it and meet the challenges ahead.  READ MORE

The Koronivia joint work on agriculture and the convention bodies:  an overview (UN Food and Agriculture Organization)

Shaping Climate Smart Agriculture and Agroecology Pathways to Achieve Global Sustainable
Development Goals (Solutions from the Land)

Methods and approaches for assessing adaptation, adaptation co-benefits and resilience (UN Climate Change)

Guaranteed Offtake Could Support Climate Smart Ag (Solutions from the Land)

Mandate
Through decision 4/CP.23 ‘Koronivia joint work on agriculture’ the COP requested the SBSTA and SBI to jointly address issues related to agriculture, including through workshops and expert meetings, working with constituted bodies under the Convention and taking into consideration the vulnerabilities of agriculture to climate change and approaches to addressing food security. 

Parties set out a road map of work under the Koronivia joint work on agriculture, as contained in annex I of FCCC/SBI/2018/9 and FCCC/SBSTA/2018/4, including six workshops to be held sequentially up until COP 26 (November 2020). The second Koronivia workshop, held in conjunction with SBSTA/SBI 50 with constituted bodies under the Convention, will focus on methods and approaches for assessing adaptation, adaptation co-benefits and resilience. The SBSTA and the SBI invited Parties and observers to submit views on the topic of the workshop, submissions received are available on the UNFCCC submission portal.

Participation
The workshop is open to all Parties and admitted observer organizations attending SB50.

Concept note and agenda
Concept note

Presentations

Improved soil carbon, soil health and soil fertility under grassland and cropland as well as integrated systems, including water management (UN Climate Change)

Participation
The workshop was open to all Parties and admitted observer organizations attending SB50.

Concept note and agenda
Concept note

Presentations