Tag Archives: Copenhagen

What does Copenhagen mean to me?

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FYF Director Dr Dan Taylor reflects in The Evening Standard online:

We are standing at a crossroads. We look back at a period of food, fuel and finance crises, and forward to an even more uncertain future, overshadowed by the issue of global warming. The need for mitigation and adaptation in the face of long-term uncertainty, together with the need for a transition to a low carbon economy remains upmost in the minds of our political leaders as COP15 approaches.

So what do we want the world to look like in the future? The recurring mantra of business as usual is not an option has become an integral part of this policy discourse. It appears in a number of reports ranging from agriculture through to climate change to the global economy. But what does it mean?

For us at Find Your Feet it means an answer to a very specific question. What will the impact on poor rural families, particularly those dependent on agriculture, be? Globally, already over a million people go hungry, a number that is gradually rising as climatic unpredictability becomes the norm. That the voices of these people need to be heard in corridors of power is clear, but what is less clear is the impact that our uncertain future will have on their lives and livelihoods. Poor farmers mitigate risk in a number of ways: crop diversification, sequential planting, polycultures and mixed farming, some moving off farm to find temporary or even permanent employment. Despite the steady decrease in the global rural population the majority of the global poor are rurally-based and most rural people are dependent on the food they produce.

Given longer term uncertainty we suggest some priority areas for action:

1. Greater investment in agricultural research that links agricultural and the environment – agroecological systems that can sequestrate carbon.
2. Early warning systems to alert farmers to expected climatic variability.
3. More appropriate participatory farmer support
4. Plant breeding for resilience rather than yield
5. Promotion of ‘minor’ crops which are ‘major’ crops in the eyes of the poor
6. Protection for the agricultural markets of the poor
7. Agrarian reform which promotes the rights of smallholder farmers
8. A greater acknowledgement of the role of women in agriculture.
9. Greater awareness of the multifunctionality of agriculture. Agriculture is not just about production, it is also about culture, resource (biodiversity) conservation and livelihoods.

This calls for a new vision for agriculture, one that can produce food, sequestrate carbon, enhance livelihoods and ultimately conserve our planet for posterity. But what can we expect out of Copenhagen? Not much would be our answer. But we hope that the link between agriculture, food security and climate change will not be lost as all attention is focussed on the latter.

Deliberating costs lives

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There have been a couple of disheartening developments this week.
The World Food Summit in Rome represents an opportunity for world leaders to address the growing food security crisis. However it looks likely that leaders will be signing a vague declaration which lacks targets or deadlines for actions to reduce global hunger.

This strikes a familiar tune. Time has apparently run out for securing a legally binding climate deal at Copenhagen. On Sunday Barak Obama backed plans to delay a formal pact on climate change until next year. This will have a serious effect on food security. As UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon said in his opening speech at the World Food Summit “there can be no food security without climate security.”

1 in 6 people on the planet are already facing life-threatening hunger. Lack of targets and delayed deadlines could spell disaster for many more people living in developing countries. These aren’t just statistics – these are people’s lives.

Help challenge this situation! Here are a few things you can do. They may not seem significant but they are all a part of a vital wave for change.
• Make sure that the voices of some of the world’s poorest people are heard: Embed/ post/ e-mail a link our video ‘Climate change: Listening to the voices of rural women’
• Participate in The Wave on December 5th.
• Find out where The Age of Stupid is showing near you and go along with all your friends.

Put People First G20 Counter Conference

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Put People First G20 Counter Conference
November 7, 10:00 – 17:30
Central Hall Westminster, SW1H 9NH

Put People First

In March, we marched in our tens of thousands to demand the G20 Put People First. Far from putting people first we’ve seen nothing but a tinkering around the margins followed by the return to business as usual.

On Nov 7, as the G20 returns to the UK, the agenda on the table nurses an already failed economic model back to life, whilst looking to stitch up an unjust international climate deal outside the UN process.

They bailed out the banks to the tune of billions, and now the only choice offered is between what cuts are made to pay for it.

Government intervention to create a Green New Deal is slipping off the agenda, and yet strong alliances are forming – for example environmentalists and trade unionists have been standing side by side at Vestas to save the UK’s largest wind turbine factory.

- In the run up to Copenhagen, how do we get a global agreement on climate that truly puts climate justice at its heart?
- How do we respond to the jobs crisis and growing poverty around the world
- How do we ensure the global green new deal the world needs?
- How we do we show that cuts are not the only option, and demonstrate what Putting People First really look like?

This counter-conference will bring together academics, activists, campaigners, unions, policy makers and YOU to share ideas on what the alternatives are to cuts, cuts and more cuts, and how we must organise across our issues, of jobs, justice and climate, to make the alternative the reality.
Register now