Agriculture and climate change

Published in September 2015, this OECD Policy Note was prepared ahead of COP21 to provide decision makers with key highlights from OECD analyses on challenges and policy recommendations related to agriculture and climate change in the wider context of sustainable productivity growth. 

Climate change is exacerbating the challenges faced by the agriculture sector, negatively affecting both crop and livestock systems in most regions. Agriculture is also contributing a significant share of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are causing climate change – 17% directly through agricultural activities and an additional 7% to 14% through land use changes. Technical solutions exist and underscore the potential of the agriculture sector to be part of climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions. Without consistent policy signals, autonomous efforts by farmers are unlikely to be sufficient to create a sustainable, productive and resilient agriculture sector.

This note highlights three pillars of reform that can help governments to achieve sustainable productivity growth without sacrificing climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives: 1) At the national level, the signals sent by the wider social, economic and environmental policy settings should support the objectives of a sustainable, climate friendly, resilient and productive agriculture sector. 2) At the sector level, governments should strengthen consistency and get the incentives right within the overall agriculture policy set by removing policies which generate unsustainable production systems and exacerbate climate change. 3) At the farmer level: emphasis should be on incentives to enhance farmer capacity to adopt practices that contribute to sustainable productivity growth while also responding to climate change.