Trade and green experts to address climate challenges

Adianto P. Simamora ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 05/10/2008 10:34 AM  |  National

Environment, agriculture and trade experts will gather in Bogor, West Java, on Monday to discuss ways to mitigate the impact of climate change, as rising global demand for food and biofuels increase pressure on the environment.

The one-day seminar, organized by the International Food and Agriculture Trade Policy Council (IPC), will also discuss how trade liberalization could benefit the environment.

"Creating synergy between the environment, food and agriculture is the future goal of trade," IPC chairman Piet Bukman said in a press statement Friday.

"We are pleased to bring together leading players in agriculture and trade, including Mari Pangestu, to address the complex challenges facing the agricultural sector and the environment," said Bukman, formerly Dutch minister for agriculture, trade and development cooperation.

Mari is the Indonesian trade minister, who organized the world's first-ever trade ministers' meeting on climate change on the sidelines of the UN climate change conference in Bali last year.

Experts say conditions caused by climate change will worsen because population and income growth will see global food demand double by the year 2050.

Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are considered the main contributor to climate change. Many countries are consequently shifting to biofuels for their transport fuel to mitigate the effect on climate change.

But experts warn the production of biofuels could lead to greater deforestation, resulting in more carbon in the atmosphere than from the fossil-fuel-intensive transport sector.

Agricultural expansion, driven in part by increased global demand and trade flows, is one of the major factors driving deforestation.

The 2006 Stern Report concluded changes in land use account for one-fifth of total annual carbon emissions.

The seminar will raise the issue of the contribution of certain biofuels to carbon reductions.

The seminar will also examine current and projected biofuel production trends in Asia and Latin America to determine the impact on environmental, social and economic sustainability.

The forum is expected to deliver recommendations for the agricultural sector on best meeting the demands it faces from the diminishing availability of arable land and water.

Seminar delegates will include private sector grain transporters, food processors and biofuel producers as well as environmental and experts in agricultural trade and farming from Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, China, Europe, India, the Philippines and the United States.

The seminar will also discuss opportunities to advance trade liberalization and environmental stewardship in the Doha Round and beyond.

IPC said liberalized trade created economic growth and increased incomes and that countries were better able to safeguard the environment when they had the means to do so.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.