The importance of agriculture in addressing climate change at COP21

FAO’s message to COP21 is that climate change can put at risk all progress made so far in relation to agriculture and food security and it won’t be possible to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger without addressing agriculture’s adaptation to climate change. “Agriculture should be considered a solution and not a threat”, Maria Helena Semedo explains, adding that FAO’s work on climate change is aimed at strengthening resilience of smallholder farmers through a number of actions and strategies, from providing technologies to improve production, to the implementation of systems as agro-ecology and climate smart agriculture. On a different level, FAO works with policy makers for a global approach to climate change, because, as Semedo stresses, climate change is cross-cutting all 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, and if we don’t face it, it won’t be possible to achieve them.