Revising Public Agricultural Support to Mitigate Climate Change

Agriculture generates roughly one-quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. By 2050, without major mitigation efforts, agricultural emissions are likely to reach levels that would make meeting global climate targets practically unachievable. Meanwhile, countries that produce two-thirds of the worl...

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Main Authors:	Searchinger, Timothy D., Malins, Chris, Dumas, Patrice, Baldock, David, Glauber, Joe, Jayne, Thomas, Huang, Jikun, Marenya, Paswell
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2020
Subjects:	CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION PUBLIC EXPENDITURE AGRICULTURE SUPPORT AGRICULTURAL SUPPORT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS LAND USE
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/773701588657353273/Development-Knowledge-and-Learning-Revising-Public-Agricultural-Support-to-Mitigate-Climate-Change http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33677

id	okr-10986-33677
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-336772021-05-25T10:54:40Z Revising Public Agricultural Support to Mitigate Climate Change Searchinger, Timothy D. Malins, Chris Dumas, Patrice Baldock, David Glauber, Joe Jayne, Thomas Huang, Jikun Marenya, Paswell CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION PUBLIC EXPENDITURE AGRICULTURE SUPPORT AGRICULTURAL SUPPORT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS LAND USE Agriculture generates roughly one-quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. By 2050, without major mitigation efforts, agricultural emissions are likely to reach levels that would make meeting global climate targets practically unachievable. Meanwhile, countries that produce two-thirds of the world's agricultural output provided US$600 billion per year in agricultural financial support on average from 2014 to 2016. By evaluating these support programs, both overall and with six case studies, this report finds that many governments have moved to make their farm support less likely to distort what farmers produce, but only a modest portion of programs support environmental objectives, and even fewer support the mitigation of climate change. Out of US$300 billion in direct spending, only 9 percent explicitly supports conservation, while another 12 percent supports research and technical assistance. Instances in which receiving government funding is contingent upon supporting environmental objectives provide models on which to build but so far have produced only modest environmental benefits. Because crop and pasture yields need to grow dramatically to avoid more deforestation and other conversion of native habitats, mitigation priorities include help for farmers to boost yields and livestock productivity. Yet to avoid inadvertently encouraging more conversion, this aid must be conditioned on the protection of forests and other native areas. Overall, climate-oriented support for agriculture should have as a guiding principle increasing the efficient use of land and other natural resources. Incentive programs should be structured so that they offer graduated payments for higher climate performance. Governments should also prioritize coordinated projects across multiple producers to explore critically needed innovations in farm management, and should support those projects with research and technical assistance. 2020-05-04T14:06:06Z 2020-05-04T14:06:06Z 2020-05-04 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/773701588657353273/Development-Knowledge-and-Learning-Revising-Public-Agricultural-Support-to-Mitigate-Climate-Change http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33677 English Development Knowledge and Learning; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Publication European Union Sub-Saharan Africa Brazil China India United States
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION PUBLIC EXPENDITURE AGRICULTURE SUPPORT AGRICULTURAL SUPPORT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS LAND USE
spellingShingle	CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION PUBLIC EXPENDITURE AGRICULTURE SUPPORT AGRICULTURAL SUPPORT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS LAND USE Searchinger, Timothy D. Malins, Chris Dumas, Patrice Baldock, David Glauber, Joe Jayne, Thomas Huang, Jikun Marenya, Paswell Revising Public Agricultural Support to Mitigate Climate Change
geographic_facet	European Union Sub-Saharan Africa Brazil China India United States
relation	Development Knowledge and Learning;
description	Agriculture generates roughly one-quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. By 2050, without major mitigation efforts, agricultural emissions are likely to reach levels that would make meeting global climate targets practically unachievable. Meanwhile, countries that produce two-thirds of the world's agricultural output provided US$600 billion per year in agricultural financial support on average from 2014 to 2016. By evaluating these support programs, both overall and with six case studies, this report finds that many governments have moved to make their farm support less likely to distort what farmers produce, but only a modest portion of programs support environmental objectives, and even fewer support the mitigation of climate change. Out of US$300 billion in direct spending, only 9 percent explicitly supports conservation, while another 12 percent supports research and technical assistance. Instances in which receiving government funding is contingent upon supporting environmental objectives provide models on which to build but so far have produced only modest environmental benefits. Because crop and pasture yields need to grow dramatically to avoid more deforestation and other conversion of native habitats, mitigation priorities include help for farmers to boost yields and livestock productivity. Yet to avoid inadvertently encouraging more conversion, this aid must be conditioned on the protection of forests and other native areas. Overall, climate-oriented support for agriculture should have as a guiding principle increasing the efficient use of land and other natural resources. Incentive programs should be structured so that they offer graduated payments for higher climate performance. Governments should also prioritize coordinated projects across multiple producers to explore critically needed innovations in farm management, and should support those projects with research and technical assistance.
format	Working Paper
author	Searchinger, Timothy D. Malins, Chris Dumas, Patrice Baldock, David Glauber, Joe Jayne, Thomas Huang, Jikun Marenya, Paswell
author_facet	Searchinger, Timothy D. Malins, Chris Dumas, Patrice Baldock, David Glauber, Joe Jayne, Thomas Huang, Jikun Marenya, Paswell
author_sort	Searchinger, Timothy D.
title	Revising Public Agricultural Support to Mitigate Climate Change
title_short	Revising Public Agricultural Support to Mitigate Climate Change
title_full	Revising Public Agricultural Support to Mitigate Climate Change
title_fullStr	Revising Public Agricultural Support to Mitigate Climate Change
title_full_unstemmed	Revising Public Agricultural Support to Mitigate Climate Change
title_sort	revising public agricultural support to mitigate climate change
publisher	Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate	2020
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/773701588657353273/Development-Knowledge-and-Learning-Revising-Public-Agricultural-Support-to-Mitigate-Climate-Change http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33677
_version_	1764478576580624384

Revising Public Agricultural Support to Mitigate Climate Change

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