Increasing the Ambition of Climate Change Mitigation in Agriculture whilst Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Food Policy Aims

Reducing agriculture’s impact on the climate is necessary if international targets are to be met (IPCC 2018, Leahy et al. 2020). Numerous estimates exist for the reduction potential of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture (Roe et al. 2019, IPCC 2018, Griscom et al. 2017, Smith et al. 2008), yet little progress has been made in implementing measures at the scales necessary to mitigate or adapt to climate change. The IPCC Special Reports (IPCC 2019, 2019) highlight the urgency and complexities of achieving sufficient mitigation and the particular challenges faced by agriculture and the landuse sector, where food security is paramount, environmental objectives are often seen as an additional burden by farmers, and emissions are likely to increase to meet growing global food demand. While mitigation targets should be ambitious, they also need to be realistic, taking into consideration these special features of the agriculture sector and what is possible to achieve in the short-term. Generating mitigation as a co-benefit of current agricultural development (Grewer et al. 2018) will not be enough.