BONN, Germany – After 2 weeks of intense negotiations at the Climate change Summit, a historic “Paris” agreement was achieved, with almost every country committing to prevent climate change by lowering greenhouse gas emissions and keep the world temperature increase well below 2°C.
This is good news for the coffee sector predicted to be heavily affected by climate change, with 1°C of temperature increase reducing coffee yields by 137 Kg/ha.
But besides the historic agreement achieved by governments of nearly 200 countries, the coffee sector together with other agricultural sectors also actively engaged at the COP21.
At the 2015 Global Landscapes Forum for a new climate and development agenda, representatives from inter-governmental organizations, NGOs, companies, national governments and academia discussed how the agricultural sector can best support the reduction of CO2 emissions and adapt to the effects of global warming.
During a session on “The role of agro-ecology in exploring innovative, viable adaptation measures for resilient smallholder coffee landscapes”, hosted by Hivos, ICO, Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung and Coffee & Climate, Roberio Silva, Executive Director of the ICO highlighted the vulnerability of the coffee sector to the impact of climate change and called upon the private sector to take up the challenge and contribute to reduction and mitigation measures.
One of the most active initiatives on Climate Change in the coffee sector is the coffee & climate initiative by the Hans Neumann Foundation, in which many 4C Members are involved. On 5th of December, the partners behind coffee & climate issued a statement outlining their ambitious plans and commitments to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change in the coffee sector.
This links to the work of Vision 2020, the major public private partnership on Sustainable coffee to date, initiated by the 4C Association, ICO and the Sustainable Coffee Program.
One of the work streams of Vision 2020 is climate change, with a strong focus on linking private climate initiatives and governmental programs in order to align actions and thus advance the mitigation and adaption of climate change in the coffee sector. For more information on Vision 2020, visit the website.
