CFA supports Farmers Solutions to Climate Change declaration

On May 27th, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s Director of Environment Policy Greg Northey attended the Climate Change: Farmers Solutions conference in Copenhagen, Denmark along with Ron Maynard from Dairy Farmers of Canada, and Don McCabe, President of Soil Conservation Council of Canada.

“Although agriculture is a greenhouse gas emitter, there is tremendous potential for farmers to mitigate greenhouse gases as well. Agriculture represents approximately 10 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions,” said McCabe. “If the proper rules and policies are put in place, agriculture can be 20 per cent of the solution.”

The conference, hosted by the Danish Agricultural Council and the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), brought together speakers from the Food and Agriculture Organization, World Bank, the world meteorological organization, as well as government and farm groups from around the world to discuss climate change and agriculture’s response.

The conference comes at an important time. In December 2009, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen to finalize a new climate change agreement that will replace the current Kyoto framework in 2012. The IFAP declaration “Farmers solutions to Climate Change - proposals for including agriculture in the post-Kyoto agreement” was presented to the Danish Minister of Environment during the conference. The declaration, drafted with CFA’s help, outlines the mechanisms and rules that the new climate agreement should have to ensure agriculture is recognized for its positive contribution to climate change mitigation.

“Canada, particularly Alberta, has recognized that agriculture is a tremendous source of voluntary carbon offsets and have put the appropriate policies in place to utilize them,” said Laurent Pellerin, CFA President. “Agricultural offsets provided 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in the Alberta Carbon market in 2008, which gave $11 million dollars back to farmer.”

“International agreements recognizing programs such as Alberta’s use of agricultural offsets that also provide income to producers will help build resilient, productive, and sustainable agriculture systems,” added Pellerin.

CFA will continue to work through organizations such as IFAP to ensure that the tremendous innovation and effort of Canadian farmers will be recognized as climate change solutions.