Initiative For Climate Smart Supply Chains

With extreme temperatures and erratic precipitation, climate change is increasingly affecting agriculture: changing growth seasons, lower yields, more pests and plant diseases. As a result, smallholder farmers and their families in the Global South, whose livelihood depends on crop yields, are facing existential challenges. At the same time, agricultural supply chains are a major cause of climate change, especially regarding the production of raw materials: about a quarter of all global greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and the food industry. Unsustainable farming practices and/or deforestation play a crucial role here.

Global companies that buy agricultural products are aware of this. Hence, they are increasingly investing in climate protection and climate risk management measures to ensure the secure procurement of agricultural commodities.

Agricultural supply chains provide the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers and their families. This is why cooperation between the stakeholder groups along the supply chain from shelf to field is important in order to achieve international development goals.

On a global level, the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and the Paris Agreement have agreed to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels and, if possible, not to exceed 1.5 degrees by substantially reducing emissions and sequestering atmospheric carbon (mitigation). The aim is also to improve the affected countries' ability to adapt to a changing climate (adaptation) and to increase their resilience to the adverse effects of climate change. These goals are also part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).The individual countries have drawn up their own climate targets (Nationally Determined Contribution, NDC) as well as specific steps to implement them. Countries must report regularly on the progress of their efforts. Companies also have a responsibility to protect fundamental human and environmental rights and to drive forward the socio-ecological transformation of global supply chains.

This is where the Initiative for Climate Smart Supply Chains (I4C) comes in and attempts to bring together the sustainability goals of companies with the NDCs of partner countries. The projects of the I4C promote win-win situations in which environmental and climate protection, a sustainable and stable supply of agricultural commodities and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers are improved in a triad.