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KNOWLEDGE FOR POLICY

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Publication | 2022

Climate-smart agriculture and the World Trade Organization

Key Points

  • Climate change threatens global food security and sustainable development, while many agricultural subsidies exacerbate environmental impact and agriculture’s carbon footprint around the world.

  • Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) may provide frameworks for policy-based incentives to reduce agriculture’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

  • Conceptually, CSA practices could be important tools to address the impact of a growing human population on the global environment, but providing large subsidies for selected production practices that have little impact on GHG emissions could conflict with international trade laws.

  • Agricultural trade liberalization should be integral to any CSA approach because, globally, resources are likely to be used more efficiently.