Climate Smart Agriculture @SunCoast, COP17

I just met the Head of Government of the smallest island-state in the world, speaking about his people's efforts towards reducing their carbon footprint. The pacific island of Tokelau houses 1466 citizens across a 10 square kilometre land mass and falls under the protection of its constitutional partner, New Zealand. Interestingly, a mass exodus to New Zealand in the 60s led to a scenario where, by 2000, more Tokelau-born citizens were living in New Zealand than in their homeland.

Given unpredictable human movements, such as global tourism, emigration and refugee intake, food security become harder to predict. Add to this, policy around food security, agricultural practice and climate change are developed and implemented in segregation, which makes no logical sense but is a case of status quo.

To make it easier for global aid, carbon trading and private sector financiers to marry their funds with climate-smart agircultural finance projects, the industry would do well to integrate in their proposals all aspects of agricultural sustainability. Governance issues over the years have necessitated the complication of funding mechanisms to ensure the desired outcome, and a thorought understanding is needed to cross this barrier in terms of the diverse information requirements of the differnt funds.

So what role can climate finance play in climate-smart agriculture? About 50% of the new $30 billion Green Climate Fund will be dedication to adaptation strategies. This would be flood, earthquake, volcano and all matter of disaster nature will throw at especially developing nations as climate shifts shake Earth's weather foundations.

The vast majority of the funding will emanate from the private sector and driven by the commercial farmer who, as a businesman specialising in farming, would be best equipped to lead the way. A tricky question is that of insurance or assurance: given how adaptable farmers are becoming in what crops they plant, when and in what numbers in the face of climatic changes, what would a long-term funding structure resemble?

Across the Continents, Brazilian and East African farmers are partnering to build the correct equipment - something their Governments find harder to do, but is easier to achieve in their private (commercial) capacity.

Even in Tokelau, pest and disease has struck, when villagers imported fertilisers and chemicals, which found their way into lagoons killing local sensitive fish species. Seven of the 11 cyclones predicted for Tokelau hit last year, yet for 7 months they had no water. Governor Faipule Foua Toloa confirms what we already know: climate change affects the most remote (and one would have wished, sheltered) nations dramatically.

He says they are following a reverse process by being at the COP17: they cannot just stand by and see their island submerge into the water. So to draw the world's eyes on the problem facing them because of global action, they are to become the first country in the world to use 100% renewable energy by next year. Although it is a tremendously expensive exercise for this small island state, the high cost of diesel will be recuperated in a short 3-5 years of using solar technology.