INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE FOR AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCTIVITY
INDIA TO HOST UN FRAMEWORK CONVENTION
ON CLIMATE CHANGE
In order to increase awareness in
the South Asian region about climatic changes, identify vulnerable
areas, deliberate on adaptation strategy and mitigation options,
Government of India, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
and Consultative Group for International Agriculture Research
(CGIAGR) are jointly organizing a three day workshop "South
Asia Expert Workshop – Adaptation to Climate Change for Agricultural
Productivity" in New Delhi from 1st May, 2002.
It is for the first time that a Workshop of this kind and on this
scale is being organized in this country. This will be inaugurated
by the Union Minister of Agriculture, Shri Ajit Singh and keynote
address will be delivered by Dr. Klaus Toepfer, Under-Secretary-General,
United Nations and Executive-Director, United Nations Environment
Programme. Dr. R.K. Pachauri, Chairman, Inter Governmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) and Dr. Dennis Garrity, Director General,
International Centre for Research in Agroforestry will also participate
in the Workshop. Representatives of South Asian countries and
a large number of eminent policy makers, planners, intellectuals,
scientists, administrators and experts will participate in the
Workshop.
The workshop will identify strategic
actions, nationally and internationally, to strengthen the planning
process and decision-making framework which needs to mainstream
adaptation activity and to the extent possible mitigation options-
to increase in agricultural productivity as expected to decline
due to impacts of climate change and climate variability.
The workshop will make recommendations
to the Eighth Conference of Parties (COP 8) of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which India would be hosting
in October – November this year. The workshop is expected to highlight
the importance of vulnerability of climate change to agriculture
as the most important subject, note the new areas of concerns
and/or opportunities, and promote international/regional co-operation
and catalyze international funding.
Climate change represents a serious
threat to every part of the Globe, especially the developing countries
facing the challenge of ensuring food and nutritional security
to the growing population. There are six gases identified in the
Kyoto Protocol, the cumulative emissions of which have led to
the threat of climate change. Of these, CO2 is the
largest, the major source of which is the combustion of fossil
fuels. Mitigation of emissions of CO2 would require
not only increased efficiency in the use of fossil fuels but a
major shift to low carbon or non-carbon fuels such as solar, wind
and sustainable use of bio-mass.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) in its Third Assessment Report finalized in 2001
predicts that the global temperature will rise by about 1.4 –
5.80C by the year 2100. This change would be much larger
than any climate change experienced over at least the last 10,000
years. The mean sea level is expected to rise 9-88cms by the year
2100 causing flooding of low-lying areas. Other effects could
include an increase in global precipitation and changes in the
severity or frequency of extreme events. Food security is unlikely
to be threatened at the global level, but some regions are expected
to experience food shortages and hunger. Water resources will
be affected as precipitation and evaporation patterns change around
the world.
The third assessment report of the
IPCC specifically considers agriculture as highly vulnerable to
impacts of climate change in the South Asian region. This is a
critical issue as countries of the South Asia generated between
24% to 40% of their GDP from agriculture in 1997 facing a larger
exposure to climate change than OECD countries which generated
only about 2-3%.
In South Asia food security therefore
becomes a primary concern. Crop production and aquaculture would
be threatened by thermal and water stresses, sea-level rise, increased
flooding, and strong winds associated with intense tropical cyclones.
Acute water shortages combined with thermal stress should adversely
affect wheat, and more severely, rice productivity in India given
even a positive 'fertilisation' effect through an elevated atmospheric
CO2-level in the future. Recognizing the increasing
population in the region and limited availability of land, agricultural
productivity needs to continuously increase to meet the growing
demand despite the adverse impacts of climate expected in the
future
