Climate change and agriculture

Challenge of Climate Change for Agriculture:

EU Ministers Meeting

Environment and Agriculture Ministers from across Europe - EU Member States, accession countries (Bulgaria and Romania), candidate countries (Turkey and Croatia) along with those from EEA countries (Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein) attended the first ever joint meeting of agricultural ministers and environment ministers in London on 11th September.

The theme of the joint meeting was the relationship between climate change and agriculture. The meeting focused on the significant challenges and opportunities that climate change presents to European agriculture. Leading international experts in their field identified the key impacts and vulnerabilities of agriculture to climate change, as well as how agriculture and land management can adapt to the impact of climate change in Europe. The meeting examined agriculture's role in reducing greenhouse emissions, for instance through changed management practices, the production of alternative fuels or carbon sequestration.

The joint meeting heard presentations from: Professor Sir David King (1MB) (UK Chief Scientific Advisor); Dr. Martin Parry (2.5MB) (Hadley Centre); Dr. Günther Fischer (3.7MB) (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria); Professor Jacqueline McGlade (1MB) (European Environment Agency), Professor Chris Pollock (2.3MB) (Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research), José M. Moreno (2.6MB) (University of Castilla-La Mancha) and John Gilliland (1.8MB) (Co-chair of Rural Climate Change Forum). The presentations and Defra press release are available.

Select the pdf links labelled by name as above.

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