When the ECF was set up, in 2008, its focus was very much on the decarbonization of the energy system. Even though food and agriculture contribute between ten and thirty per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, depending on how you count them, the sector was conspicuously absent from the ECF’s portfolio. Apart from its work to limit the use of bioenergy, like first-generation biofuels, that competes with food and nature, the ECF, like many other climate philanthropies, did not really address land.

There were good reasons for this. Agricultural reform was deemed too complex, too politically entrenched and dealing with too many small actors. Its role in climate mitigation was seen as marginal, partly because its own emissions were obscured by accounting practices—so the carbon footprint of fertilizer production or the transport of agricultural goods was assigned to other sectors. And in the pre-Paris Agreement era, when the EU’s emission reduction target was usually described as 80-95 per cent below 1990 levels, it was possible to argue that agriculture could lay claim to that residual share.

But it is increasingly clear that we can no longer afford to leave the agricultural sector out of the equation. This is not just because getting to net-zero emissions means involving every sector. It’s also because agriculture has a special role to play in climate action. Agriculture (as well as forestry) is particularly exposed to the impacts of climate change, as rising temperatures will ravage currently fertile areas.

Read the full article about the agriculture and climate crisis by Thomas Legge at Alliance.