The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has annual meetings of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the convention with the ongoing objective of stabilising greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere to reduce the anthropogenic impact on climate. The 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) was held near Paris from 30 November to 11 December, 2015. The COP21 negotiations led to broad discussions on mitigation, transparent accounting and stock taking of country actions (every five years), strengthening countries’ abilities to adapt to climate change, strengthen abilities to recover from impacts and funding needs to build and become resilient. The Agreement considered mechanisms to contribute to emission reductions and encourage sustainable development. It encouraged countries to conserve and enhance sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases and to practice sustainable forest and soil management. Despite the limited explicit action with respect to agriculture, the fact that 195 countries could come to any sort of an agreement was truly a feat of diplomacy.
The COP21 meeting provided an opportunity to create awareness that Conservation Agriculture (CA) can move conventional agriculture toward more sustainable systems that are environmentally responsible. Global decision makers need to understand CA and adopt sensible action plans for sustainable food production in a changing climate. CA systems provide an appropriate response to build climate resilience with proven technology and farmer support. The CA system is the best global alternative available with today’s technology to provide system and resource resilience for both goals of emissions mitigation and building resilience to climate change. If policy makers and scientists consider options for agriculture in the absence of those who know how to apply complex, integrated systems to working landscapes, the result may be less than appealing or optimal. Farm organisations and CA practitioners need to engage in intelligent, effective discussions contributing their expertise, pragmatism and tacit knowledge.
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