FAO pushes for inclusion of farmers in new climate pact talks

The UN food organisation has asked for including the issue of 'farming' in the talks for a new pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, as agricultural activities and deforestations together account for more than 30 per cent of hazardous emissions.  

UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has asked policy makers gathered in Germany to include farming in their negotiations on an ambitious new international greenhouse gas reduction pact which will replace the key pact.  

The agency warned that annual greenhouse gas emissions from farming, already accounting of 14 per cent of the world's discharge while another 17 per cent comes from deforestation and soil degradation are expected to increase in coming decades due to a rise in demand for food and shifts in diet.

"But millions of farmers around the globe could also become agents of change helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Alexander Mueller, FAO Assistant Director General on the occasion of the ongoing UN negotiations.

More than 2,000 delegates from government, business and industry, environmental organisations and research institutions, are meeting in Bonn, for the first of a series of three sessions designed to culminate in a draft climate change treaty for discussion at the high-level UN-backed conference in Copenhagen in December.