Realising Ambitious Targets and Metrics for Private-Sector Action on Climate Risks

Abstract

Value chains in agriculture and food production involve large numbers of private-sector participants, from agricultural suppliers and farmers through to food manufacturers and processors, retailers, caterers and insurers. Companies coming together in shared agendas and actions on climate risks may offer a means to accelerate responses in the food system to a changing climate. One major global business partnership is the Climate-Smart Agriculture initiative of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Announced at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, the initiative sets out global targets for private-sector action by 2030 under three pillars of climate-smart agriculture: increasing productivity, strengthening climate change resilience, and mitigating climate change. Demonstrating progress towards these targets will need monitoring and evaluation. Early analysis, ahead of formal WBCSD reporting, highlights the key potentials for—and obstacles to—measuring collective advances towards the global targets. The analysis shows that the global agrifood sector is exceeding WBCSD targets for global food production, but falling short on emissions reductions, and failing to track outcomes for farmers’ livelihoods. Major information gaps include: the nutritional value and accessibility of increased food production; resource-use intensity and the protection of ecosystems; and the resilience and welfare of agricultural communities and landscapes under climate change. Major challenges to effective monitoring, evaluation and reporting include: amplifying complementary actions across value chains; balancing group versus individual accountability; and moving beyond dispersed activities and outcomes to broader system-wide change.