Change now or endanger food and climate

UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns

Humanity faces increasingly painful trade-offs between food security and rising temperatures within decades unless emissions are curbed and unsustainable farming and deforestation halted, a landmark climate assessment said yesterday. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that efforts to limit global warming while feeding a booming population could be wrecked without swift and sweeping changes to how we use the land we live off.

The report on land use and climate change highlighted the need to protect remaining tropical forests as a bulkhead against future warming. But it offered a sobering take on the hope that reforestation and biofuel schemes alone can offset mankind's environmental damage, underlining that reducing emissions will be central to averting disaster.

"Land is a source of emissions as

well as a sink," IPCC chair Hoesung

Lee told AFP.

"Obviously you want to reduce

emissions from land as much as possible. But that has a lot to do with what’s happening to the other side of the equation: greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from the energy sector.”

Land is intimately linked to climate. With its forests, plants and soil it sucks up and stores around one third of all man-made emissions. Intensive exploitation of these resources also produces huge amounts of planet-warming CO2, methane and nitrous oxide, while agriculture guzzles up 70 percent of Earth’s freshwater supply.

As the global population balloons towards 10 billion by mid-century, how land is managed by governments, industry and farmers will play a key role in limiting or accelerating the worst excesses of climate change.

Teenage climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, who along with a group of activists presented IPCC co-chairs with a thank you letter in Geneva, said she hoped governments would act on the report’s findings.

“Of course if you are a very powerful person in a very powerful position then I think you should definitely read it,” the 16-year-old told AFP.

Its land use report presented a string of looming trade-offs in using land for climatechange mitigation.

“I just hope that the conclusion of this report becomes in a way common knowledge, so everyone knows the importance of those numbers and facts within a bigger perspective.”

The IPCC is the world’s leading authority on climate change. Last year it warned that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius — the optimal level aimed for in the Paris climate deal — would be impossible without a drastic drawdown in greenhouse gas emissions.

Forests, an enormous carbon sink, can be regenerated to cool the planet. But with industrial farming covering a third of land today, there’s limited space.

 

Change now or endanger food and climate

UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns

Humanity faces increasingly painful trade-offs between food security and rising temperatures within decades unless emissions are curbed and unsustainable farming and deforestation halted, a landmark climate assessment said yesterday. The UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that efforts to limit global warming while feeding a booming population could be wrecked without swift and sweeping changes to how we use the land we live off. The report on land use and climate change highlighted the need to protect remaining tropical forests as a bulkhead against future warming. But it offered a sobering take on the hope that reforestation and biofuel schemes alone can offset mankinds environmental damage, underlining that reducing emissions will be central to averting disaster. Land is a source of emissions as well as a sink, IPCC chair Hoesung Lee told AFP. Obviously you want to reduce emissions from land as much as possible. But that has a lot to do with whats happening to the other side of the equation: greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from the energy sector. Land is intimately linked to climate. With its forests, plants and soil it sucks up and stores around one third of all man-made emissions. Intensive exploitation of these resources also produces huge amounts of planet-warming CO2, methane and nitrous oxide, while agriculture guzzles up 70 percent of Earths freshwater supply. As the global population balloons towards 10 billion by mid-century, how land is managed by governments, industry and farmers will play a key role in limiting or accelerating the worst excesses of climate change. Teenage climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, who along with a group of activists presented IPCC co-chairs with a thank you letter in Geneva, said she hoped governments would act on the reports findings. Of course if you are a very powerful person in a very powerful position then I think you should definitely read it, the 16-year-old told AFP. Its land use report presented a string of looming trade-offs in using land for climatechange mitigation. I just hope that the conclusion of this report becomes in a way common knowledge, so everyone knows the importance of those numbers and facts within a bigger perspective. The IPCC is the worlds leading authority on climate change. Last year it warned that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius the optimal level aimed for in the Paris climate deal would be impossible without a drastic drawdown in greenhouse gas emissions. Forests, an enormous carbon sink, can be regenerated to cool the planet. But with industrial farming covering a third of land today, theres limited space.