Expanding Agriculture’s Role in the International Climate Change Regime

The document argues that agriculture is a critical but historically marginalized sector in climate negotiations, offering significant short-term greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potential, particularly in developing nations. It reviews the status of UNFCCC negotiations, the Copenhagen Accord, and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases. The report highlights Canada's leadership in GHG accounting and soil carbon sequestration, suggesting that Canada can improve its international reputation by providing capacity building and technology transfer to regions like Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia. It recommends establishing a dedicated agriculture and climate change fund and supporting an SBSTA programme of work to integrate agricultural mitigation into post-2012 climate agreements.

• Agriculture has significant potential for short-term GHG emission reductions, with the IPCC estimating a global mitigation potential of 5.5 to 6 gigatonnes of CO2equivalent per year by 2030, and potential reductions ranging from 5 to 20 per cent of total CO2 emissions by that date.
• Approximately 70 per cent of agricultural mitigation potential is located in developing countries, primarily through the restoration of degraded land and cultivated organic soils.
• Agriculture has been historically marginal in climate negotiations and the Kyoto Protocol due to the perceived high cost and lack of robust methodologies for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV), as well as the exclusion of soil carbon sequestration from the clean development mechanism (CDM).
• The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, launched in December 2009 and led by New Zealand, aims to reduce emissions intensity and increase soil carbon sequestration through international cooperation. Canada leads the Alliance's research efforts on the cross-cutting issue of MRV.
• Canada is considered a world leader in GHG accounting systems for agriculture and LULUCF, the development of agricultural offset protocols, and soil carbon sequestration, providing a strategic advantage for capacity building in developing nations.
• Developing countries' positions on agricultural market mechanisms vary: Brazil supports a narrow forest approach for CDM eligibility (afforestation and reforestation), while others, including the African Group and several Latin American nations, support expanding the CDM to include soil carbon and wetlands.
• Canada's current international aid delivery for climate change is limited by a tendency to channel funds through multilateral institutions like the World Bank, which reduces the visibility of Canadian expertise and bilateral opportunities.
• The report identifies Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia as priority regions for Canadian engagement; the former due to high vulnerability and mitigation potential, and the latter because Canadian technology is well-suited to the region's conditions.

APA

Murphy, D., McCandless, M., & Drexhage, J. (2010). Expanding Agriculture’s Role in the International Climate Change Regime. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/expanding_agri_role.pdf

Chicago

Murphy, Deborah, Matthew McCandless, and John Drexhage. Expanding Agriculture’s Role in the International Climate Change Regime. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2010. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/expanding_agri_role.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Murphy |first1=Deborah |last2=McCandless |first2=Matthew |last3=Drexhage |first3=John |title=Expanding Agriculture’s Role in the International Climate Change Regime |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=June 2010 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/expanding_agri_role.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{murphy2010expanding, author = {Murphy, Deborah and McCandless, Matthew and Drexhage, John}, title = {{Expanding Agriculture’s Role in the International Climate Change Regime}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2010}, month = jun, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/expanding_agri_role.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }