Brief Description

The agriculture sector is the one of the vulnerable to the rapidly changing climate, with significant impacts projected in terms of reduced productivity and yield of major crops around the world, thereby having severe implications for food and nutrition security. Agriculture is also a key emitter of greenhouse gases. The sector is therefore faced with the dual challenge of reducing its emissions while at the same time sustainably increase food production to meet the growing demands, under the likely scenarios of increase in temperature, irregular precipitation patterns and changes in frequencies and intensities of extreme weather events.

Acknowledging the foreseen challenges ahead, countries have put forward ambitious sectoral and non- sectoral targets and actions in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. The agriculture and land use sector (covering crops, fisheries, livestock, water and forestry) features prominently in the NDCs of the Asia and the Pacific region. A recent analysis by the Food and Agriculture Organization shows that more than 90 percent of the countries in the region have prioritized mitigation in the agriculture and/or LULUCF sectors while all developing countries in the region have identified adaptation as key to reducing impacts on this sector. However, of the policies or measures identified by countries, only around 40 percent of the mitigation contributions have quantifiable targets while it is only about 5 percent for adaptation priorities.

Countries are currently in the process of updating their NDCs. The Paris Agreement states that the emission reduction targets by countries should be based on the best available scientific information. Actions identified should therefore be, quantifiable and verifiable in order to actually see transformative changes on ground. A number of research organizations and educational institutes have been conducting pioneering researches and studies, strengthening information and generating scientific data, tools and methodologies that could potentially help quantify many of the goals, targets and actions in order to contribute towards reducing emissions from the agriculture sector and also, towards the other national climate priority areas. Having concrete and quantified goals also increases the opportunities and scope for leveraging on additional funds from both the public and private sectors.

Session Objectives

In view of the above, the main objectives of this session will be,

  • To discuss how current scientific knowledge and information can support countries to identify and implement NDC mitigation and adaption actions and other relevant national priorities for the agriculture sector, especially at a time when countries are updating their NDCs, and
  • To identify potential tools and methodologies, as developed and used by the scientific community (e.g. national and international policy support and research institutes) that could possibly be adapted by countries to quantify their NDC actions and targets for the agriculture sector in order to make more informed decisions and policies.

Expected Outcomes

The key outcome of this session will be,

  • Improved understanding and knowledge on scientific approaches, tools and methodologies to determine quantifiable and verifiable mitigation and adaptation NDC actions for the agriculture sector