On the 4th of April four Universities came together to debate climate change and agriculture at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. FAO Geneva organized the event in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to raise public awareness on the important linkages between climate change adaptation and mitigation and food security and agricultural development.

Opening the debate, Ms Sandra Aviles, Officer-in-Charge of FAO Geneva highlighted that "no other sector is more sensitive to climate change than agriculture and no solution to climate change can be achieved without the contribution from agriculture”. She added that “climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction are at the core of FAO work, which targets the livelihoods of rural populations, with the aim of increasing their resilience to risks, threats and crises. In addition to increasing food security, adaptation practices can also mitigate climate change by reducing emissions from agriculture, livestock farming, fisheries or forestry”.

Students from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Graduate Institute of International & Development Studies (IHEID) debated the proposition that “Climate change means we should invest more in agriculture”, while the students from the University of Zurich (UZH) and the Bern University of Applied Sciences (HAFL) debated the proposition that “Climate-smart agriculture is an answer to the food security issue!”

The debate was attended by more than 60 participants including representatives of the Permanent Missions of Mali, Iraq and Columbia, UNITAR, UNEP, WWF International, UNCTAD, UNOCHA, UNECE, Delegation of the European Union to the UN (Health Department), Better Cotton Initiative, Oko Forests, UN-World Tourism Organization, and students from the four participating universities plus the University of Geneva.

Click here to see te video.