Urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (SDG 13): transforming agriculture and food systems

Achieving Food Security in a Climate Change Environment: Considerations for Environmental Kuznets Curve Use in the South African Agricultural Sector

“…Climate change has become a topical issue, as witnessed by its inclusion in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are a global plan of action for people, the planet and prosperity, seeking to eradicate poverty. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 pertains to combating climate change and its impacts [1,2]. Climate change is associated with changes in ambient CO 2 concentrations [3][4][5].…”

“…These transformative actions, however, come with their own downsides. These include trade-offs with productive capacities, especially for developing countries [1,6]. Highlighting such downsides will likely lead to short-term and long-term impacts.…”

“…The study concludes that it will be difficult for South Africa to simultaneously achieve SDGs 1, 2 and 13, especially given that agriculture is reliant upon livestock production, the largest CO 2 emitter in the sector . The sector needs to shift to renewable energy consumption with fewer CO 2 emissions.Climate 2019, 7, 108 2 of 17 agriculture and food systems attain SDGs 1 and 2, this should, however, not undermine achieving SDG 13, especially in developing countries [1]. In achieving SDG 13, various actions are required within the agricultural sector to reduce emissions, especially given that agriculture and food account for 24% of global CO 2 emissions and 10-25% of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with livestock being the primary perpetrator.…”

“…Climate 2019, 7, 108 2 of 17 agriculture and food systems attain SDGs 1 and 2, this should, however, not undermine achieving SDG 13, especially in developing countries [1]. In achieving SDG 13, various actions are required within the agricultural sector to reduce emissions, especially given that agriculture and food account for 24% of global CO 2 emissions and 10-25% of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with livestock being the primary perpetrator.…”

Analysing the safe and just operating space of agriculture in the world: past, present and future

“…greenhouse gas emissions, excessive water use, land-use change, and biodiversity impacts). The global agriculture is a chief driver of climate change (Vermeulen et al, 2012, Wollenberg et al, 2016, Carlson et al, 2017, Campbell et al, 2018), depletion of freshwater resources (Destouni et al, 2013), land-use system change (Zabel et al, 2014, Scown et al, 2019, Stehfest et al, 2019), biogeochemical flows of nitrogen (Galloway et al, 2008, Liu et al, 2010, Robertson et al, 2010, De Vries et al, 2013) and phosphorus (Cordell et al, 2014, Zhang et al, 2017) (through fertilizer and manure application), biodiversity loss (Newbold et al, 2016, Mace et al, 2018), emission of atmospheric pollutants and introduction of novel entities (Stehle et al, 2015). Agriculture has contributed to the exceeding of several of the proposed ‘planetary boundaries’ which define a safe operating space for humankind on a stable Earth system (Campbell et al, 2017, Conijn et al, 2018, Springmann et al, 2018).…”