Enhancing cooperation in agricultural greenhouse gas research
Laura HoggNew Zealand Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry
The challenges• Agriculture’s contribution to global greenhouse gas
emissions
• Projected increases in emissions as global demand for food grows
• Agriculture has a part to play in overall mitigation efforts, however…
• It makes up a large proportion of many economies and is a key contributor to growth and development
• Increasing food production is central to food security
• Mitigation solutions can be difficult to implement
• One-off technological fixes won’t work for agriculture (needs sustained application of processes and management practices by millions of individuals (farmers)
The opportunities
• In many cases increased productivity and efficiency is positively correlated with reduced emissions intensity, and increased resilience and food security
• The good news is that many countries are already investing in this area and we can leverage this collective effort and make the best use of resources
• Opens up a wide field for RD&E and better connections with policy-making
The importance of RD&E
• The global agriculture sector needs good information and viable options
• RD&E is core to this:- Critical to measurement and estimation of emissions- Critical to improving our knowledge of production systems- Helps ensure evidence-based policy making- The only way we can develop mitigation options that represent
viable, win-win solutions
The Alliance
• Brings countries together to find ways to grow more food without growing greenhouse gas emissions
• Specifically, the Alliance will help:- Find ways to reduce the emissions intensity of agricultural
production and increase its potential for soil carbon sequestration, while enhancing food security
- Improve understanding, measurement and estimation of agricultural emissions
- Improve farmers’ access to agricultural mitigation technologies and best practices
The idea
• Create a global community of scientists, policy makers, farmer organisations and others
• Strengthen collaboration and leverage collective effort
• Not “science for science’s sake” - outcome focused
• Bottom up and voluntary - recognising each other’s contexts and drivers
• Links efforts across sub-sectors
Membership
Now 31 member countries:
Observers: Brazil, China, European Commission, Korea, South Africa
NetherlandsNew ZealandNorwayPakistanPeruPhilippinesRussia
GhanaIndiaIndonesiaIrelandJapanMalaysiaMexico
SpainSwedenSwitzerlandThailandUKUnited States UruguayVietnam
ArgentinaAustraliaCanadaChileColombiaDenmarkFinlandFranceGermany
Structure
At the centre:
• Three Research Groups:– Livestock (NZ / Netherlands)– Paddy Rice (Japan)– Croplands (USA)
• Two cross-cutting issues – Soil carbon and nitrogen cycling (France / Australia)– Inventories and measurement (Canada / Netherlands)
Held together by a Charter and supported by a Secretariat
A few other details
• Designed to complement and support the work of key initiatives, e.g. CGIAR
• Is not part of the UNFCCC negotiations
• Does not have a central funding mechanism
Progress update
• Stock-take exercise of countries’ activities
• Meetings of the Research Groups (Sept-Nov) and short-term projects:
– Standardised guidelines and protocols, and best practice manuals– Information and data sharing networks of genomics experts– Synthesis papers and database of existing research
• Charter drafting – governance structure and membership
• Outreach to potential new members and other interested organisations
• Second full meeting (March, France)
• Ministerial Summit and start of “working phase” (June)
www.globalresearchalliance.org