Climate change is underway in the United States and expected to continue with far-reaching effects if unmitigated—from thawing Alaskan permafrost, to declining air quality in the Northeast, to rising sea levels encroaching on Pacific Island regions—according to a new report from the U.S. Global Climate Research Program. (Key findings here)
“Global Change Impacts in the United States,” explores possible impacts explores global climate change on specific U.S. regions and sectors, including human health, energy, water, and agriculture.
The report’s authors focus largely on scientific observations and projections for the future impacts, but say a successful climate change response strategy will include both mitigation and adaptation efforts. The report calls further adaptation research saying, “In most cases, there is currently insufficient peer-reviewed information to evaluate the practicality, effectiveness, costs, or benefits of these measures, highlighting a need for research in this area.”
To help answer these questions, Resources for the Future has released a series of reports examining key issues U.S. for climate change adaptation policy. The first installment from RFF University Fellow John M. Antle explores the relationship between agriculture (one of the most-adaptable sectors, according to USCGRP), food supply and adaptation.
In “Agriculture and the Food System: Adaptation to Climate Change,” Antle suggests with planning and support, farmers and ranchers can adjust to climate change and continue sustainable operations:
The substantial role that the public sector has played in making the complementary investments that led to the success of U.S. agriculture in the 20th century raises a number of questions about appropriate policies in the context of climate change. The justification for public funding of infrastructure, research, and information systems was based on economies of scale as well as the public good aspect of basic research needed to develop agricultural technologies. Although a substantial public role remains in infrastructure, research, and outreach, it has diminished over time as private institutions have become increasingly capable of providing these services. A key question for policy is whether climate change justifies an expanded role in these areas or whether markets can stimulate adequate responses to the adjustments that will be required as the climate changes. There seems to be a particularly compelling case for the provision of public information about climate change, potential impacts, and adaptation strategies.
Agriculture remains an industry with substantial public subsidies to producers of basic grain and fiber commodities, as well as various subsidies and incentives to encourage sustainable land management and to mitigate environmental impacts. Some policies, such as commodity subsidies, create disincentives for farmers to adapt to changing climate and economic conditions, but these subsidies are likely to be under political pressure, both because they increasingly go to large commercial farms and wealthy landowners and because they are incompatible with international trade agreements.
“Agriculture and the Food System: Adaptation to Climate Change,” is an installment from a six-part series of U.S. climate change adaptation policy reports.
