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The landmark Paris Agreement seeks to strengthen the global response to climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty. Among the provisions of the Paris Agreement is an explicit link between climate objectives and food security. The Agreement recognized “the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger, and the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems to the adverse impacts of climate change”. Stipulated under Article 2 is a commitment to “hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels” as well as “increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production”.
At the 43rd Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), held in Nairobi Kenya in April 2016
the IPCC decided the strategy and timeline for reports to be produced during its 6th assessment cycle. As part of this report, the IPCC agreed to produce a Special Report on “Climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security and GHG fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems”.
FAO welcomed the IPCC decision on the Special Report. It also reaffirmed its willingness to contribute its expertise in the areas of agriculture and food security. FAO proposed to organize an Expert Meeting (EM) on climate change, land use and food security on 23-25 January 2017 with the co-sponsorship of IPCC. The central aim of the EM is to place food security at the centre of the debate relating to climate change, land use systems and the required adaptation
and mitigation responses in line with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The second objective of the EM is to provide background support to the IPCC scoping meeting on the above Special Report, held in mid-February 2017 in Dublin.
One hundred scientists, economists and policy experts participated in this EM engaging in a high-level, globally oriented, and multidisciplinary scoping of the most critical issues that face land use and food security in the context of climate change. The three-day EM was structured around five themes: climate impacts on land, ecosystems and food; human- directed drivers of land change and linked to food security; emissions trends in AFOLU and mitigation options; adaptation and resilience in food and land systems; and policies for adaptation, mitigation and food and nutrition security.
The present Report offers a comprehensive synthesis from the EM proceedings and present a series of detailed conclusions and recommendations reflecting the collective view of the 100 participants with additional input from external reviewers. We expect the report to be a valuable source for the IPCC above mentioned IPCC Special Report, especially in relation to food security, as well to researchers and policy makers concerned with the policy implication of food security in relation to post-Paris climate action and Agenda 2030.
We thank the Government of Ireland and the Government of New Zealand for their financial support which enabled FAO to sponsor over 30 participants from developing countries to participate at this event.
Signed on behalf of FAO
René Castro
Assistant Director-General
Climate, Biodiversity, Land & Water Department
Kostas Stamoulis
Assistant Director-General
Economic and Social Development Department
Signed on behalf of IPCC
Youba Sokona Vice-Chair of the IPCC
Jim Skea
Working Group 3 Co-Chair
Priyadarshi R. Shukla Working Group 3 Co-Chair
Andy Reisinger Working Group 3 Vice-Chair
FAO-IPCC Expert meeting on climate change, land use and food security