Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability

Climate change is a threat to agricultural production due to rises in temperature, changes in rainfall patterns and an increase in extreme weather events such as droughts and floods.

Agricultural practices that capture carbon and store it in the soil offer some of the most promising options for early and cost-effective action against climate change in developing countries.

Around 70 per cent of agriculture's potential to reduce emissions can be achieved in developing countries. The main technical options in agriculture for climate change mitigation include improvements in the management of farmland and pastures and the restoration of organic soils and degraded lands.

Improved agricultural practices needed to mitigate climate change are often the same measures needed to increase productivity, food security and adaptation.

At the Twenty-first FAO Regional Conference, it was established that national and international public investment aimed at improving the adaptation of agriculture to climate change is absolutely essential to the agricultural and rural sectors of the region.

More Information

• Climate Change and its consequences in Farming, Forestry and Fishery Production in Latin America and the Caribbean
• The state of world land and water resources for food and agriculture: managing systems at risk
• Risk-management and Disaster-prevention project for the farming sector in the Caribbean
• Energy-Smart Food for People and Climate