Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
annually by 2020. In the context of agricultural
mitigation and adaptation, the following interna-
tional fi nancing channels may be considered: the
Global Environment Facility Trust Fund,
UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol-mandated fi nanc-
ing, and, in the future, the Green Climate Fund.
Relevant mechanisms to channel mitigation
fi nance for agriculture into developing countries
include a reformed clean development mecha-
nism and fi nance for nationally appropriate miti-
gation actions or for reducing emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation.
Although international climate fi nance is
likely to be scaled up in the future, it is unlikely
to address the investment needs for adaptation
and mitigation in developing countries. It is,
therefore, necessary to use public funds strategi-
cally to remove investment barriers and facilitate
private investment and to effectively blend tradi-
tional agricultural fi nance with climate fi nance.
Capacity building and institutional strengthening
have to complement these efforts to enable indi-
viduals, communities, institutions, and other
entities to make effective use of available knowl-
edge, resources, and technologies.
The Cancun Agreements defi ned the broad
architecture and functions of a technology mech-
anism, although without providing the specifi cs
on how the bodies under the mechanism should
operate, what their precise priorities should be, or
how their activities would be funded. Existing
national technology needs assessments to identify
agriculture and forestry as a priority sector.
Harnessing the potential of the technology
mechanism to promote the research and develop-
ment, demonstration, deployment, diffusion, and
transfer of agricultural mitigation and adaptation
technologies requires the mapping of possible
options, proposals, and points of intervention in
current discussions about the operationalization
of the mechanism.
mitigation and adaptation. Reporting on vulnera-
bility and adaptation occurs through national
communications, in relation to national adapta-
tion programs of action in least-developed
countries, and in the context of the operations of
the Adaptation Fund for measurement of adapta-
tion performance, there is no consensus on indi-
cators, frameworks, or methods to use, but
emerging practice indicates that results-based
frameworks are a suitable approach to track prog-
ress in implementing specifi c adaptation actions
and to ensure accountability for the use of adap-
tation funds.
Approaches to measure mitigation impacts
in agriculture already exist at international,
national, sectoral, and project levels. Although
there is relatively strong consensus on agricul-
tural greenhouse gas reporting frameworks,
measurement of agricultural mitigation actions
is hampered by inherent variability in agricul-
tural emissions and removals and by a lack of
available data and limited capacities for mea-
surement in many countries. The former can be
provided by strengthening existing agricultural
monitoring and evaluation systems. Even
within developed countries that have elected to
account for cropland and grazingland emissions
in the Kyoto Protocol's fi rst commitment
period, uncertainties associated with agri-
cultural emissions range between 13 and
100 %. Therefore, there is a strong global
interest in improving the emission factors of
the IPCC and for individual countries to move
towards more accurate and precise measure-
ment frameworks.
Given the need for increased food production
in the future, effi ciency-accounting approaches
that incentivize increased food output while
reducing the intensity of greenhouse gas emis-
sions per unit of output are relevant. Effi ciency-
accounting (life cycle) approaches measure the
emissions intensity per unit of output. Methods
are still under development for many products
are data demanding. Given the diversity of agri-
cultural production systems, standardized
approaches may not suite all contexts, presenting
an obstacle to comparability within and among
countries.
14.1.3 Measurement
and Performance
The Convention formulates requirements for
performance and benefi ts measurement for both
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