See more from this Session: Agriculture’s Contributions to Climate Change Solutions: Mitigation and Adaptation At Global and Regional Scales
In some regions, there are changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as high intensity rainfall, tropical storms, high winds, extreme temperatures and droughts. Agricultural productivity in tropical Asia is sensitive not only to temperature increases, but also to changes in the nature and characteristics of monsoon. In the semi-arid tropics of Africa, which are already having difficulty coping with environmental stress, climate change resulting in increased frequencies of drought poses the greatest risk to agriculture. In Latin America, agriculture and water resources are most affected through the impact of extreme temperatures and changes in rainfall.
WMO’s Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM) as well as WMO’s Regional Associations have been actively addressing the issue of climate variability, climate change and agriculture over the past three decades through the establishment of working groups and rapporteurs and production of reports by experts from different regions of the world. The Agricultural Meteorology Programme of WMO has been organizing international workshops and seminars on climate change and agriculture in different regions of the world such as South Asia, West Africa and has been promoting the development of regional adaptation frameworks to climate change in agriculture. The Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) programme of WMO, a partnership involving 80 countries, provides reliable scientific data and information on the chemical composition of the atmosphere, its natural and anthropogenic change, and helps to improve the understanding of interactions between the atmosphere, the oceans and the biosphere. Understanding and predicting climate variability and change requires comprehensive investigation of all major components of the climate system (the atmosphere, hydrosphere, oceans, land and cryosphere). The World Climate Research Programme, which is co-sponsored by WMO, studies these components and their interactions through the activities of its Core Projects. These are illustrated with suitable examples.
See more from this Session: Agriculture’s Contributions to Climate Change Solutions: Mitigation and Adaptation At Global and Regional Scales