Anchoring agriculture within a Copenhagen agreement
The brief provides an overview over the technical mitigation potential in the agricultural sector, noting that most of this potential is in developing countries. It further lays out options for integrating mitigation in the agricultural sector in nationally appropriate mitigation action (NAMA) in developing countries, arguing that many mitigation actions have co-benefits for improved food security, sustainable development and adaptation. The brief suggests tailoring agricultural NAMAs to country conditions and circumstances such as the food security situation, intensity of production systems, dependency of the local population on agriculture and pressures for land conversion. The brief proposes a phased approach, starting with capacity building and national strategy development, followed by scaling up projects and implementing sectoral strategies where appropriate, and complemented by a NAMA carbon trading mechanism in the final stage. The policy brief presents three proposals for anchoring agriculture in a climate regime: including agriculture in NAMAs of developing countries by supporting the adoption of practices that support mitigation; ensuring financing for agricultural mitigation by expanding the scope of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and establishing new financing mechanisms with broader scope and more flexible approaches; and by developing a comprehensive landscape approach covering all land uses.