Reports on agriculture and climate change:
Combining Agriculture and Food Security (October 2010) - Full Report
Report Highlights: U.S. and French stakeholders exchanged views on ways to combine sustainable agriculture and food security in a seminar organized in the American Embassy in Paris, France, on September 24, 2010. U.S. and French regulators and farmers representatives expressed their perspectives and actions conducted in their own countries and their approach to developing countries on a common issue : how to continue to feed a growing population while protecting the environment, in their own countries and their perspectives for developing countries.
Taking stock after Copenhagen (May 2010) - Full Report
Report Highlights: This report is an overview of discussions at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) roundtable on sustainable development, held February 24, and hosted by the International Food the International Food and Agricultural Centre for Trade Policy Council (IPC) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) on the topic titled, ―Climate Change and Food Security: Taking Stock after the COP15.
Proposed carbon footprint labeling could step on trade (December 2009) - Full Report
Report Highlights: The French National Assembly will consider in early 2010 an “Environmental Labeling Law” already approved by the French Senate. The so called “Grenelle 2: the bill on the national commitment to the environment” is a five-year plan for nationwide sustainability with targets set to 2050. One element of this plan aims to increase consumers’ awareness of their carbon footprint (the amount of greenhouse gases emitted during a product’s manufacture, packaging, and transport, i.e., lifecycle). The proposed bill would make environmental labels mandatory on all consumer products sold in France beginning January 2011. It is estimated to cost as much as 5 percent of the final product price; a cost the French consumer will have to bear, unless both retailers and producers agree to share the burden. It is unclear how the European Commission and other EU Member States will view this law, believed to be the first of its kind. While proposed regulations stemming from this bill are still evolving, if passed, it could pose significant barriers to exports of U.S. processed, intermediate, and bulk products to France.
French agriculture addressing climate change (December 2009) - Full Report
Report Highlights: Agriculture being a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel consumption in France, many research institutes have conducted programs to assess the impact of climate change on French agriculture and identify how agriculture can adapt to climate change. Climate change was identified as the major factor explaining the stagnation in wheat yields observed over the past decade in France. By contrast, corn yields have continued to increase gradually, and the same trend is expected in the next 30 years, actually benefitting from climate change. On cattle farms, reducing indirect energy consumption (consisting of fertilizer use and animal feed purchase) and increasingly producing and consuming renewable energies (biogas to produce heat and electricity, photovoltaic electricity and biomass to produce heat) are recommended.
French agriculture and climate change (August 2009) - Full Report
Report Highlights: Agriculture and related food industries are a major sector of the French economy (totaling 4 percent of GDP), and are therefore a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel consumption. In recent years, there have been significant efforts to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and promote renewable energy use and generation in order to increase sustainability. Such efforts have been the result of policy incentives and various industry initiatives.