FAO's activities in climate change are spread over all departments and cover all agricultural sectors (i.e. agriculture, livestock, forestry, fisheries) as well as highly cross-sectoral topics (e.g. bioenergy, biodiversity, climate risk management). The Interdepartmental Working Group on Climate Change and the Environment, Climate Change and Bioenergy Division (NRC) play an important role in coordinating these activities.

Interdepartmental Working Group on Climate Change

In 1988, FAO established an interdepartmental working group on climate change. The Group is chaired in rotation by the involved departments, e.g. Forest Products Division (FOP, Forestry Department), Land and Water Division (NRL) and Environment, Climate Change and Bioenergy Division (NRC) belonging to the Natural Resources Management and Environment Department). Since 2001, climate change is one of the Priority Areas for Interdepartmental Action (PAIA) in FAO.

The main objectives of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Climate Change are

• to prepare of documents for major meetings,
• to organize technical climate change meetings in areas relevant to the farming community and FAO,
• to develop integrative normative and methodological approaches in the context of climate change,
• to open new channels of financing and other support measures for mitigation and adaption and
• to provide information about climate change related activities in the FAO web portal on Climate Change (PAIA).