UN expert group calls for controlling agriculture and food waste to curb Climate Change
The IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international body in charge of evaluating the state of scientific knowledge related to climate change, its impacts and potential future risks, as well as possible response options, reviewed the "Summary ” for policy makers from the special report titled Climate change and the earth, which was approved by world governments on Wednesday in Geneva (Switzerland).
This report will be a fundamental scientific contribution in the upcoming climate and environment negotiations, such as the 25 session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP25, which will take place in Santiago (Chile) in December.
“Land plays an important role in the climate system,” said Jim Skea, co-chair of IPCC Working Group III. Land use for agricultural, forestry and other purposes accounts for 23% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the earth's natural processes absorb an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to nearly a third of the carbon dioxide emissions caused by burning fossil fuels and industry,” he added.
According to Hans-Otto Pörtner, co-chair of IPCC Working Group II, the report shows that sustainable management of land resources can help fight climate change. “Land that is already being cultivated could feed the population in a context of climate change and be a source of biomass that provides renewable energy, but far-reaching early initiatives must be taken that simultaneously affect several areas,” he explained.
Land degradation
Land degradation undermines their productivity, limits crop types and reduces soil's ability to absorb carbon. This exacerbates climate change and climate change, in turn, exacerbates land degradation in many different ways.
“Decisions we make towards sustainable land management can help reduce and, in some cases, reverse these adverse effects,” said Kiyoto Tanabe, co-chair of the IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Greenhouse.
“In a future with more intense rainfall, the risk of soil erosion from farmland increases, and sustainable land management is a way to protect communities from the harmful effects of such soil erosion and landslides. of Earth. However, our room for maneuver is limited, so in some cases the degradation could be irreversible,” he explained.
Approximately 500 millions of people live in areas affected by desertification. Regions experiencing this problem and drylands are also more vulnerable to climate change and extremely serious phenomena, such as droughts, heat waves and dust storms, and the increase in the world's population only subjects these areas to more Pressure.
“New insights show increased risks of water scarcity in drylands, fire damage, permafrost degradation and food system instability, even under a global warming scenario of about 1,5°C,” Valérie said. Masson-Delmotte, co-chair of IPCC Working Group I.
“The risk related to permafrost degradation and food system instability is considered to be very high in the event of a 2°C warming,” he noted.
The comprehensive analysis contains recommendations for governments to enact policies to change forest and agricultural land use in order to contribute to the fight against climate change, taking into account that, among other things, forests absorb about one third of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2).
Food safety
The report highlights that climate change affects the four pillars of food security: availability (yield and production), access (prices and ability to obtain food), utilization (nutrition and food preparation) and stability (changes in the availability).
“Problems that will result from climate change in the future, such as reduced yields —particularly in the tropics—, increased prices, loss of nutrient quality, and disruptions in the supply chain, will increasingly affect to food security,” said Priyadarshi Shukla, co-chair of IPCC Working Group III.
“We will see different effects depending on the country, but the consequences will be more drastic in low-income countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean,” he explained. The report finds that approximately one third of the food produced is spoiled or wasted.
“Some dietary patterns require more water and land and cause, compared to other alternatives, more emissions of heat-trapping gases,” said Debra Roberts, co-chair of IPCC Working Group II.
“Balanced diets based on foods of plant origin (such as coarse grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables) and foods of animal origin produced sustainably in systems that generate low greenhouse gas emissions present greater opportunities for adaptation to climate change and of limitation of its effects”, he pointed out.
The document recommends the implementation of "policies that reduce food waste and influence the choice of certain food options", in a direct allusion to consuming less meat in order to reduce the obese or overweight population, close to to 2.000 billion people.
According to the report, wasted between an 25 and an 30 per cent of the food produced on the planet, so combating this problem can reduce the pressure to reduce forests and increase agricultural land, thus contributing to a reduction of CO2 emissions (the main gas causing the greenhouse effect).
It is also proposed to resume agricultural, livestock and forestry practices of traditional indigenous populations, since according to the document "their experience can contribute to the challenges presented by climate change, food security, biodiversity conservation and the fight against desertification ”.
Keys to understanding the relationship between soil and CC
Traditionally the soil absorbed the CO2 from the atmosphere as a huge greenhouse gas sink but its gradual degradation and desertification with practices such as deforestation for new uses for livestock, agricultural, industrial activities or infrastructure construction are making the land stop catching emissions to become the generator of them.
The use of the land by man is enormous: approximately 72 percent of the ice-free soil is used by people to feed, dress and maintain the progressive demands of a growing world population.
The way we feed, dress and extract resources from nature is changing the Earth's climate, contributing to 23% of the emissions that heat the atmosphere. And this endangers the fundamental resource that sustains life: the soil.
Fertilizers in agriculture and the methane and nitrogen oxide emissions associated with livestock are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, and hence the appeal of IPCC scientists to a change in eating behavior in the world.
The way food is produced will affect food security in the future: every degree of temperature that rises will feel much more in the productivity of the five main crops in the world: wheat, soybeans, corn, rice and sorghum
Governments must also stop deforestation, taking into account that forests and forests absorb a third of global carbon dioxide emissions, in addition to playing an important role in the cooling of the earth's crust or the generation of rainfall.
Since then, this group generates periodic reports to improve scientific knowledge about climate change in order to serve as a basis for rulers and other policy makers to adopt more efficient measures to mitigate this global phenomenon. His scientific contributions are not financially paid.
Specifically, their contributions with this new report will help governments and political decision makers to improve their decisions on terrestrial ecosystems and the use of land to reduce their degradation, desertification and their possible effects on food security.
This approved special report on climate change, desertification, soil degradation, sustainable land use, food security and greenhouse gas flows in terrestrial ecosystems was decided to be prepared in 2016 with the Paris Agreement.
Also part of this type of documents on very specific topics related to climate change was published just a year ago, known as that of the 1,5 degrees, which determined the possible impact of a temperature increase to those levels, which compared to a Hypothetical scenario of increasing 2 degrees would have far less aggressive effects for the planet.
The IPCC scientists hope that their report will inspire new land exploitation policies by different governments, and that the first commitments will be made and announced at the climate summit of the September 23 at the United Nations headquarters in New York, instance for that the presidents who will be present at the COP25 assume such commitments as State policies.
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