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447 results
Identifying and Tackling Environmentally Harmful Agricultural Subsidies in the WTO
The document analyzes global agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, noting that the sector accounted for approximately 20% of global anthropogenic emissions in 2022. It identifies ruminant livestock and deforestation as the primary drivers of these emissions and highlights significant regional variations in emission intensities. The author argues that coupled subsidies and market price supports incentivize environmentally harmful practices and recommends repurposing these funds toward sustainable management, innovation, and uncoupled payments to reduce the sector's carbon footprint while balancing food security and livelihoods.
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Document type: Briefing
Identifying Environmentally Harmful Agricultural Subsidies at the International Level
The report examines the environmental impacts of agricultural subsidies, noting that total global support ranges from $610 to $842 billion per year. It argues that while production-linked supports—such as market price support and input subsidies—are often the most harmful, impacts are highly context-specific. The authors propose several frameworks for identifying harmful subsidies, including the use of meta-analyses of farming practices and the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) model. To address these issues internationally, the report suggests options such as enhanced transparency, the use of 'rebuttable presumptions' to shift the burden of proof to subsidizing countries, and special and differential treatment for developing nations to balance environmental goals with food security and livelihoods.
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Document type: Report
Entre acertos e equívocos: análise crítica da proposta de resolução sobre ASV
The document evaluates a proposed Conama resolution aimed at standardizing the issuance of Vegetation Suppression Authorizations (ASV) to control legal deforestation in Brazil. While the authors praise the proposal for establishing minimum transparency criteria, mandatory geospatial data, and linking validity to the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), they identify critical flaws. Specifically, they argue the scope is too narrow—restricted to agrosilvopastoral activities—and criticize the unnecessary distinction between ASV and Authorizations for Alternative Land Use (UAS). The briefing recommends expanding the scope to include infrastructure and mining, unifying the authorization nomenclature, and improving the technical interoperability of the national Sinaflor system.
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Document type: Briefing
Agriculture Trade, Climate, and Net Zero Pathways: Scenarios and Implications for Developing Countries and Climate-Resilient Development
The document analyzes how climate change disrupts agricultural yields and trade flows, particularly in developing regions, while contributing significantly to global GHG emissions. It highlights the risks of food insecurity and the potential for trade-related climate measures to marginalize vulnerable economies. The author argues for a comprehensive international cooperation agenda focused on reducing trade tensions, reforming harmful subsidies, facilitating technology transfer, and securing global food stocks to ensure a fair transition to sustainable agriculture.
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Document type: Briefing
THE FIRST 100+ FLAG TARGETS
The report analyzes the first 149 companies to adopt SBTi FLAG targets, finding that while uptake is rapid—particularly in Europe and the food and beverage sector—mitigation plans are uneven. Most companies focus on agricultural emissions reduction and food waste, but few engage in forest management or biochar. The report highlights the role of FLAG targets in accelerating no-deforestation commitments and identifies the need for more robust transition plans as target deadlines approach.
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Document type: Report
RE-GAIN: Scaling solutions for food loss in Africa Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia
The RE-GAIN programme is a 5-year initiative designed to strengthen food security and climate resilience in seven African countries by scaling the adoption of Food Loss-Reduction Solutions (FL-RS). The programme addresses climate hazards—such as extreme heat, erratic rainfall, and flooding—that cause grain shattering, rotting, and mycotoxin contamination. It employs a three-pronged strategy: increasing farmer demand through awareness and training, enhancing supply and affordability via MSME business development and innovative financial models (including 'smart-subsidies'), and creating an enabling environment through policy reform. The project targets 2.63 million direct beneficiaries and expects to reduce GHG emissions by 111,275 tCO2e over 10 years.
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Document type: Report
Como a nova NDC brasileira pode estimular o investimento do setor privado em ações climáticas
The briefing outlines Brazil's updated NDC targets for 2035 and argues that the successful implementation of these goals depends on a strong 'Plano Clima' and a collaborative relationship with the private sector. It identifies key opportunities and barriers across land use, agriculture, energy, transport, and industry, while proposing mechanisms to increase transparency and corporate transition planning ahead of COP30.
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Document type: Briefing
Shipping industry’s biofuels plan threatens rainforests, communities and climate
Trend Asia warns that integrating biofuels into the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Global Fuel Standard would drive catastrophic environmental and social damage. The statement highlights that food- and feed-based biofuels, particularly those promoted by Brazil, are linked to land grabbing, deforestation, and life-cycle emissions that can exceed those of fossil diesel. It calls for the IMO to instead prioritize energy efficiency, wind assistance, and demand reduction to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
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Document type: Statement
Agricultural impact on soil organic carbon content: testing the IPCC carbon accounting method for evaluations at county scale
The study tests the IPCC's carbon accounting methods for soil organic carbon (SOC) in the Argentinean Pampa Region, finding that a developed Tier 2 (T2) method using the RothC model significantly outperforms the Tier 1 (T1) method. While T1 showed poor performance at both sub-region and county scales, the T2 method demonstrated strong accuracy at the sub-region scale (R2 = 0.85) and improved accuracy at the county scale (R2 = 0.73) when excluding the Flooding Pampa region. The T2 method identified the highest average SOC losses in Central Pampa (35%), Southern Pampa – Eastern (28%), and Rolling Pampa (26%).
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Document type: Research paper
Tree plantation in South America and the water cycle: impacts and emergent opportunities
South American tree plantations are expanding by 5,000 km²/year, causing significant shifts in precipitation partitioning and water yields. In sloped terrains, plantations typically reduce water yields by an average of 40% compared to native vegetation, with the strongest effects seen in drier climates and with eucalypt species. In flat landscapes, plantations can trigger local salinization by switching the water balance from net recharge to net discharge, although they may remediate salinization where native woodlands were replaced by agriculture. In degraded (sub)tropical rolling landscapes, plantations can reduce erosion and stabilize flow, though total water yield is reduced and benefits may be negated by large-scale clear cutting.
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Document type: Research paper
Observações Ambientais Atmosféricas e de Propriedades da Superfície
The text emphasizes that Brazil's vast size and climatic diversity require detailed observational studies to distinguish between natural variability and long-term climate change. It highlights that interannual variability, driven largely by El Niño and La Niña, can alter seasonal rainfall in the Amazon by a factor of more than four. The author cautions that most precipitation trends in Brazil are linked to interdecadal oscillations—such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO)—rather than global warming. Additionally, the document notes a trend of increasing air temperatures in the tropics of South America since 1948, contrasting with a negative trend in the subtropics since the mid-1990s, and mentions the influence of land-use change and biomass burning on air temperature in the Amazon and Cerrado.
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Document type: Report
Higher water table levels and flooding risk under grain vs livestock production system in the subhumid plains of the Pampas
The study finds that grain production systems in the Pampas lead to higher water-table levels and increased flooding risk compared to dairy systems. This is attributed to lower transpiration rates in annual crops and enhanced groundwater recharge in croplands, whereas perennial pastures maintain deeper water tables through higher transpiration and direct groundwater discharge.
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Document type: Research paper
Conflictos por la tenencia de la tierra en la provincia de Santiago del Estero: su relación con los cambios en el uso de la tierra
The document examines how land-use changes, specifically deforestation in the Gran Chaco region, correlate with increased rural land conflicts in Santiago del Estero, Argentina.
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Document type: Research paper
Cambios en la partición de flujos de agua en el Chaco Árido al reemplazar bosques por pasturas
A study in San Luis, Argentina, comparing native dry forests and pastures found that replacing forests with pastures reduces direct precipitation interception and increases surface runoff and potential soil-level evaporation. These changes suggest a reduction in transpirable precipitation and a higher risk of water erosion.
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Document type: Research paper
The Meat Agenda
The report argues that Brazil's agribusiness sector, dominated by giants like JBS, MBRF, and Minerva, exerts systemic control over political and public narratives to avoid climate regulation. It highlights a critical 'blind spot' in Brazil's updated NDC, which omits agricultural methane emissions despite the sector accounting for 75.6% of the country's total methane. The document details how the 'ruralist caucus' (FPA) controls Congress and pushes for controversial methane metrics like GWP* to downplay warming impacts. It also exposes the 'AgriZone' and other industry-led events surrounding COP30 as tools for greenwashing, while noting that structural weaknesses in the Climate Plan, Tax Reform, and Forest Code continue to favour industrial agriculture over sustainable agroecological farming.
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Document type: Report
PLOWPRINT 2025 REPORT
The 2025 Plowprint Report shifts its focus from annual data analysis to identifying strategic opportunities and policy solutions for grassland conservation in North America. Due to changes in government data, the author has paused its typical analysis of grassland conversion in the Great Plains. The document highlights several collaborative initiatives, such as the Central Grasslands Roadmap and the JV8 Central Grasslands Initiative, and advocates for policy reforms including the expansion of the Sodsaver program, strengthening the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and reforming biofuels policy to prevent further cropland expansion. It also emphasizes the role of Tribal food sovereignty and bison restoration in maintaining ecosystem health.
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Document type: Report
Climate Disclosure and Target Setting in the Agriculture Sector
The document examines the role of Canadian financial institutions in managing climate disclosures and target setting for the agriculture sector, highlighting specific sectoral challenges and available measurement tools.
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Document type: Research paper
Understanding and overcoming policy (in)coherence to control deforestation in Colombia
The document assesses the gap between Colombia's robust policy frameworks for the 2030 Agenda and climate goals and their actual implementation, which is hindered by conflicting priorities and institutional weaknesses. It highlights that while most land-use policies are synergistic, specific conflicts—particularly within mining legislation—and the criminalization of peasant farmers through military operations like Operation Artemisa undermine conservation efforts. The authors argue that overcoming this incoherence requires better inter-agency coordination, community engagement, and regional cooperation within the Amazon biome.
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Document type: Briefing
Oil and gas fuelling extreme weather in Brazil
Attribution studies in Brazil indicate that fossil fuel combustion increased the likelihood and intensity of recent floods in Rio Grande do Sul and droughts in the Amazon. Despite these impacts, the Brazilian government continues to support oil and gas expansion, with plans to increase oil production by 63% and gas by 124% by 2032. Petrobras, which controls over 90% of domestic production, is estimated to be responsible for USD 500 billion in climate damages between 2018 and 2023. While Brazil has pledged to reduce emissions by up to 67% by 2035 and has successfully increased wind and solar power to reduce reliance on hydropower, its overall climate policies are rated as 'Insufficient' by Climate Action Tracker.
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Document type: Briefing
Transformando la gestión del agua mediante el control de incendios en la Chiquitania
The report examines the degradation of the Chiquitano Dry Forest due to agricultural expansion, deforestation, and intensifying forest fires, highlighting the risk of total forest disappearance by 2050 and the need for sustainable water management tools.
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Document type: Report