Agriculture can play a role in climate change mitigation, but there is not enough information available on its potential contribution. This is what participants heard during a side event organized by the World Agroforestry Centre as part of the UN climate change talks in Warsaw, Poland.

Titled: Scaling up Climate Smart Agriculture: policies, development and mitigation potentials, the side event began with an introduction to the United Nation Environment Program’s (UNEP) 2013 Emissions Gap Report which looks at the gap between worldwide pledged emissions reductions by 2020 and emissions reductions necessary to actually meet climate targets.

Participants discussed the role of climate smart agriculture in reducing emissions, with Merlyn Van Voore from UNEP highlighted the potential for agroforestry.

Henry Neufeldt, head of climate change research at the World Agroforestry Centre, outlined how mitigation could be achieved through better cropland management, grazing land management and the restoration of cultivated soils. He spoke of the challenges in providing an enabling legal and political environment, improving market accessibility, involving farmers in project-planning, improving knowledge and training, improving tenure security and overcoming high land costs.

Arild Angelsen from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences looked at the issue of whether increasing yields preserved forests or threatened them.

Wendy Mann from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said agriculture needs to generate multiple benefits, including food security, livelihood support, economic growth and climate adaptation.

Moderator James Kinyangi of CCAFS concluded the event by saying how the emissions-reduction potential of agriculture will be realized—or not—based on a mixture of high-level policies and decisions made at the farm and local levels.

Read the story on the blog of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature initiative: The UNEP Emissions Gap Report and Climate-Smart Agriculture: ICRAF COP19 Side Event

Read the story on the website of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD): Warsaw Event Highlights Mitigation Potential of Agriculture

Download UNEP’s 2013 Emissions Gap Report