Climate change and land
The report (PDF) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) addresses greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in land-based ecosystems, land use and sustainable land management in relation to climate change adaptation and mitigation, desertification, land degradation and food security. Climate change has adversely impacted food security and terrestrial ecosystems, and contributed to desertificatin and land degradation. On the other hand, changes in land conditions affect the global and regional climate, varying in magnitude and direction per location and season. Climate change creates additional stresses on land, exacerbating existing risks to livelihoods, biodiversity, human and ecosystem health, infrastructure, and food system. The level of risk posed by climate change depends both on the level of warming and on how population, consumption, production, technological development, and land management patterns evolve. While land-related responses can make important contributions to adaptation and mitigation of climate change, there are barriers to adaptation and limits to their contribution to global mitigation. Response options throughout the food system, from production to consumption can be deployed and scaled up to advance adaptation and mitigation. Changes can be made in practices on cropland, the livestock sector, diversification of the food system, balanced diets, and reduction of food loss and waste. Appropriate design of policies, institutions and governance systems at all scales can contribute to land-related adaptation and mitigation while facilitating the pursuit of climate-adaptive development pathways. Policies that operate across the food system, including those that reduce food loss and waste and influence dietary choices, enable more sustainable land-use management, enhanced food security and low emissions trajectories. Actions can be taken in the near-term, based on existing knowledge, to address desertification, land degradation and food security while supporting longer-term responses that enable adaptation and mitigation to climate change. These include actions to build individual and institutional capacity, accelerate knowledge transfer, enhance technology transfer and deployment, enable financial mechanisms, implement early warning systems, undertake risk management and address gaps in implementation and upscaling.