COP24: Friends of farming out in force

NFU climate change adviser Dr Ceris Jones reports from the international climate talks in Poland.

After years in the climate negotiations’ wilderness, COP24 in Katowice, Poland, sees the first in a series of consultations and workshops addressing technical issues like adaptation and livestock productivity measures under the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture. Government representatives had the opportunity to quiz various bodies working on technology transfer, finance and adaptation about how they were including agriculture in their work - and if not, why not? And one farmer in the room, NFU Environment Forum member Richard Bramley from the North East, got the opportunity to have his say – that it is critically important that farmers are at the centre of all these discussions because they are good at solving problems with really practical solutions.

Pictured above: NFU Environment Forum member Richard Bramley with Olivier Dauger of FNSEA at the reception

This year’s climate summit is really important for global progress on climate change. Governments need to adopt the guidelines for how the 2015 agreement signed in Paris will be implemented, send clear signals that they will strengthen their climate commitments by 2020 (current commitments won’t limit temperature rise to 1.5/2oC) and deliver adequate finance to developing countries to address climate change.