Global governance and agriculture

After the 2011 G20 Agriculture Summit, 2012 offers two windows of opportunity for global governance of food security and sustainable development: Rio+20 and the World Water Forum. Rather than the transition to a green economy in agriculture – which the FAO had unsuccessfully sought to introduce at Rio+20 as a major contribution for a change of model – it is long-term resource scarcity that is framing the international debate with, on the one hand, the issue of resilience to shocks and short-term food security and, on the other, sustainability and viability in view of long-term resource security.

Participation in the FoodSecure project will be an opportunity to cooperate with the community of modellers who are seeking to represent these short-term/long-term trade-offs using integrated models. The role of the experts, or the capacity to apply economic analysis to these issues, seems to be a central yet contested question.

In parallel, IDDRI is continuing to monitor the gradual inclusion of agriculture in climate negotiations, for example, with respect to the REDD+ mechanisms, and working to anticipate the possible scenarios that integrate agriculture into the post-Durban regimes (for the Kyoto Protocol countries, other countries…).