Page 52 - FAO-IPCC Expert meeting on climate change

Policies for land use, sustainable food production and consumption and climate action
Only rarely does one encounter a case when putting a price on water use does result in a significant reduction in water use on a significant scale. One exception has been reported, in British Columbia, Canada, where stone fruit is grown under irrigation free of water conditions. Following a sudden introduction of mills to farmers’ pipes and a small user fee for water, the volume of water used dropped by half after a year. In this case, farmers recognized that water had an economic value and their awareness of rising water scarcity under climate change prompted a behavioural change. This is not always the case, however. In most countries water continues to be underpriced and the fees charged rarely go beyond the cost of water delivery. For various reasons, there have not been many successful instances where water pricing has worked effectively. Effective water pricing should reflect either the full supply cost or the opportunity
cost. Moreover, water, being a vital need, is highly regulated. The best option is a sort of hybrid between a market instrument and tariffs and quotas to deal effectively with water scarcity on the one hand and, on the other hand, incentives for optimal use of water resources.
Another challenge that faces water use policy is that of governance and equitable access to water resources by the poor as well as rural women. There are many key policy issues that relate to water governance, including multi-level coordination, information need, coherence, transboundary water management and groundwater management. The issue of transboundary water, is extremely critical given that large shares of water used for irrigation are transboundary resources (i.e. surface or groundwater), while water policies are regional policies that require cross-border coordination which is not always easy. Developing informed regional policies that can guide riparian countries and help them
adopt coordinated approaches to the issues has to be explicitly addressed. The second governance challenge relates to managing groundwater owing to the private and dispersed nature of water use, it is often difficult to monitor and enforce regulation.
5.2 Policies for sustainable food consumption and diets and for reducing food waste and loss: food demand issues under climate change
5.2.1 Importance of adopting the food system approach in addressing climate and food security
While most of the literature on climate and food has focused on supply-side issues, the importance of food demand, consumption patterns, diets and nutrition to climate response is receiving increasing attention and deservedly so. Climate-compatible food policy must encompass production as well as consumption and trade issues. While food demand is of paramount importance to climate change adaptation and mitigation, the issue of food consumption not only must be addressed jointly with production because they are interlinked, but also to avoid contradictory conclusions and recommendations. For example, production subsidies not only can distort markets, they may also produce perverse incentives on the demand side, resulting in an unbalanced nutritional diet. Likewise, production subsidies may counter the aims of lower carbon food supply.
From a nutritional point of view, food production must be assessed not only for its volume, but also from its nutritional contribution. In many parts of the world dietary and consumer habits are changing,48 not always for the better as attested by the rise in the numbers of overweight and obese people worldwide and the rise of nutrition-linked health problems such as diabetes, among others. Most reported dietary changes refer to a shift in consumption to more meat and dairy products in middle income consumers in developing countries, as well as an increase in the demand for fruits and vegetables in high income populations. In Brazil, there are dietary transitions at play, notably from meat to fish protein, making Brazil the second largest aquaculture producer in Latin America.
In many parts of the developing world, however, especially among poor and small-scale farmers, millions of people
are food insecure and meet their caloric needs mostly through carbohydrates (e.g. rice, wheat) with known nutritional imbalances. For the poor, the price factor is a major determinant. Therefore food policies that introduce carbon certification or similar schemes must integrate the nutritional requirements of the world’s poor. The “hidden hunger” from micronutrient deficiencies is a key concern, especially in Africa where a major shift has taken place in recent decades from local and more nutritious food products to a smaller range of imported foods (e.g. wheat and rice), often with unbalanced nutritional content.
48 Pradhan, P., Reusser, D. E. & Kropp, J. P. (2013). Embodied greenhouse gas emissions in diets. PloS one, 8(5), e62228.
FAO-IPCC Expert meeting on climate change, land use and food security