The climate change stakes are high for farmers, but the most concrete result for agriculture to come out of last week’s marathon climate change negotiations in Copenhagen had nothing to do with a final deal.
On Dec. 16, in the midst of the talks that produced a non-binding political commitment on carbon reduction Dec. 18, Canada agreed to join 15 other countries in forming the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.
Ottawa agreed to invest up to $27 million in the global research project.
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It will give Canada and its farmers access to research from scientists in countries as diverse as the United States, Australia and Japan, as well as countries in Asia, Europe and South America.
“Countries will collaborate on research projects and exchange knowledge on new research and practices for greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture which can be used domestically and internationally,” the Canadian Federation of Agriculture said in a Dec. 17 statement supporting the agreement.
From the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Don McCabe, CFA representative at the talks, said in an interview that farmers and farm issues were not centre stage at the two-week negotiations, but they played a role at side events.
The agreement on research was important.
“Farmers of the world are united on this issue,” he said. “We are the managers of carbon and nitrogen and we will both be among the first affected and also a part of the solution.”
McCabe, president of the Soil Conservation Council of Canada and vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said in Canada agriculture is 10 percent of the greenhouse gas problem and 20 percent of the solution with the right policies.
“Internationally, I would say it is 15 percent of the problem and 45 percent of the solution if carbon is priced at $100 a tonne and the proper policies are in place.”
Since an international agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol does not include binding carbon emission reduction proposals but calls for general carbon reduction targets with national promises, the details of how countries will meet their commitments will be worked out as domestic policy.
“That is where the real work will be done and where we will have to have agriculture front and centre,” said McCabe.
The Copenhagen agreement reached late Dec. 18 will commit developed countries to invest in a $100 billion fund to help mitigate greenhouse gas effects in developing countries and committed all countries to reduce carbon emissions enough to limit temperature rise to no more than 2 C.
International observers will monitor the impact of national carbon reduction policies and Canada’s commitment is to reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent from 2006 levels.
At the Copenhagen conference, McCabe was part of a 72 member farmer delegation organized by the International Federation of Agricultural Producers.
Environmental groups quickly denounced the Copenhagen deal as inadequate.
Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth U.S., called it “a sham agreement with no real requirements for any countries.”
