Summary
The Agriculture Action Day took place on 10 November 2017, in Bonn, Germany, on the sidelines of the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 23) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
It was organized by: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); Government of New Zealand; World Wildlife Fund (WWF); International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); International Climate Forest Initiative (ICFI); Centre for International Forest Research (CIFOR); World Bank; CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); UN Environment; and Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC).
The Action Day included interventions from high-level delegates such as Inia Seruiratu, Minister for Agriculture, Rural & Maritime Development, and National Disaster Management and High-Level Climate Champion, Fiji; and Gemedo Dalle, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ethiopia.
The event highlighted solutions for addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation in the agriculture sector. The session addressed, inter alia: low-carbon livestock; integrated landscape management; measures to reduce food waste; climate data to inform precision agriculture; enhancing soil carbon storage; and revitalizing traditional agricultural practices. Panelists highlighted how the measures presented throughout the day contribute to reaching the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement and how discussions held during the action day could inform the 2018 Facilitative Dialogue.
The Action Day brought together various types of stakeholders to exchange on successful agriculture-based climate actions, discuss challenges and pathways for enhancing collaboration across communities and scaling-up from pilot projects. Special emphasis was put on identifying options to reconcile the need to feed a growing world population while reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of the agriculture sector and preventing land degradation.
IISD Reporting Services, through its ENB+ Meeting Coverage, provided web coverage and a video from the Agriculture Action Day. In addition, IISD Reporting Services has published a summary report of the event in HTML and PDF.
Photos by IISD/ENB | Herman Njoroge Chege
For photo reprint permissions, please follow instructions at our Attribution Regulations for Meeting Photo Usage Page.
Opening Plenary - High Level
L-R: René Castro, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO); Mohamed Ait Kadi, Morocco; Peter Bleser, State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), Germany; Inia Seruiratu, Minister for Agriculture, Rural and Maritime Development, and National Disaster Management and High-Level Climate Champion, Fiji; and Ankit Kawatra, Founder of Feeding India / 2017 UN Young Leader for SDGs
René Castro, FAO, moderates the event
Inia Seruiratu, Fiji
Peter Bleser, Germany
Participants during the event
Low Carbon Livestock: moving forward
Mark Sadler, World Bank, speaks during the event
Anne Mottet, FAO
Thomas Pesquet, Astronaut, European Space Agency (ESA)
Participants during the event
Integrated Landscape Management – Supporting climate change interventions defined in the NDCs
L-R: Coraina de la Plaza, Global Forest Coalition; Gemedo Dalle, Ethiopia; Ousame Ndiaye, Senegal; Paula Caballero, World Resource Institute; Ann Tutwiler, Director General, Bioversity International; René Castro, FAO; Karin Kemper, World Bank; and Katia Avilés-Vázquez, Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Ecológica
Ann Tutwiler, Director General, Bioversity International
Paula Caballero, World Resource Institute
René Castro, FAO
Managing Water Scarcity for Agriculture
L-R: Nthopayizi Mphande, Zambia; Tatiana Fedotova, World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD); Olcay Ünver, FAO; Luis Felipe Alcocer Espinosa, CONAGUA, Mexico; Oyuun Sanjaasürengiin, Global Water Partnership (GWP); Mariet Verhoeff-Cohen, Women for Water Partnership (WfWP); and Avinash Tyagi, International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID)
Mariet Verhoeff-Cohen, WfWP
Oyuun Sanjaasürengiin, GWP
Avinash Tyagi, ICID
Unlocking the potential of soil organic carbon for climate change action
L-R: Eduardo Mansur, FAO; Jo House, University of Bristol; Inia Seruiratu, Fiji; Tekini Nakidakida, Fiji; Luca Montanarella, Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils; Deon Terblanche, World Meteorological Organization (WMO); and Jean-Luc Chotte, UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
Jo House, University of Bristol
Deon Terblanche, WMO
Jean-Luc Chotte, UNCCD
Downloading climate data to grow agriculture
L-R: Victoria Hatton, Moderator; Marc Sadler, World Bank; Francesca Eggleton, New Zealand; Sophia Huyer, Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CGIAR); René Castro, FAO; and Masamichi Saigo, Japan
Masamichi Saigo, Japan
Sophia Huyer, CGIAR
Scaling Up Climate-Smart Agriculture to Achieve the NDCs in the Agriculture Sectors
Nthopayizi Mphande, , young Zambian farmer shares her experience with Climate-Smart Agriculture during the event
Maria Eugenia Silva, Uruguay
Tony Simons, Director General, The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
The newly launched Climate-Smart Agricultute Sourcebook
Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems and climate change
L-R: Anne Mottet, moderator; Mauro Agnoletti, University of Florence, Italy ; Min Qing Wen, Chinese Academy of Science; Rachid Moussadek, Morocco; and René Castro, FAO
Elisangela Aquino, a farmer from Minas Gerais region, Brazil (via video)
Rachid Moussadek, Morocco
Promoting Collaborative Climate Action to Reduce Food Loss and Waste
L-R: Dorothee Merkl, FAO; Rima Al Azar, FAO; Craig Hanson, World Resources Institute; Isabel Chanteaux, Messe Düsseldorf GmbH; Martina Otto, UN Environment; Pascal Martinez, Global Environment Facility (GEF); Toine Timmermans, Wageningen University/ Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)
Rima Al Azar, FAO
Craig Hanson, World Resources Institute
Participants during the event
Reducing the vulnerability of mountain and dryland ecosystems to climate change
L-R: Maya Hunt, moderator; Eduardo Mansur, FAO; Andrew Taber, Executive Director, The Mountain Partnership; Somaya Omer Abdoun, Sudan; Tony Simons, Director General, ICRAF; Sasha Alexander, UNCCD; and Djimé Adoum, Executive Secretary, Permanent Interstates Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS)
Closing Plenary
L-R: James Dalton, IUCN; René Castro, FAO; Inia Seruiratu, Fiji; Amaru Torres, Nicaragua, and Jesús Vázquez, Puerto Rico
Specific funding for coverage of Selected Side Events at the UN Climate Change Conference - November 2017, has been provided by the European Union (EU) and the Ministry of the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea of Italy
