Climate
“With the right tools and partnerships, American agriculture and forestry can lead the world in solutions that will increase climate resilience, sequester carbon, enhance agricultural productivity, and maintain critical environmental benefits.” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
The Foreign Agricultural Service leads USDA's international efforts to put agriculture at the center of solutions to the climate crisis, focusing on trade, food systems, food security, sustainable production growth, capacity building, and related issues. We recognize that innovation and technology are key to sustainable, climate-smart agricultural production, but that those innovations must be accessible to, and inclusive of, all producers and land managers worldwide.
Climate Solutions at USDA
USDA is engaged in a whole-of-government effort to combat the climate crisis and conserve and protect our nation’s lands, biodiversity, and natural resources. Through research, conservation practices, and partnerships, USDA aims to find solutions to agricultural challenges, enhance economic growth, and create new streams of income for farmers, ranchers, producers, and private foresters. Click here to learn more.
USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities
USDA is committed to supporting a diverse range of farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners through Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. This effort will expand markets for America’s climate-smart commodities, leverage the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production, and provide direct, meaningful benefits to production agriculture, including for small and underserved producers. Click here to learn more.
USDA Climate Hubs
Since 2014, USDA’s 10 regional Climate Hubs have delivered science-based, region-specific information and technologies to help farmers, ranchers, foresters, other land managers, and rural communities plan for and manage weather- and climate-related risks and vulnerabilities. Click here to learn more.
International Partnerships and Coalitions
Recognizing that joint international action is key to ensuring global food security while enhancing agriculture's climate resilience and reducing its climate impacts, USDA is partnering with governments, non-governmental organizations, and private enterprises worldwide.
Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate
The United States and the United Arab Emirates are leading the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate), a joint initiative to address the climate crisis through increased and accelerated investment in climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation. Click here to visit the AIM for Climate website (external).
White House Fact Sheet: Launching Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate
Global Fertilizer Challenge
The Global Fertilizer Challenge will support innovative research, demonstrations, and training to help countries with high fertilizer usage and loss adopt efficient nutrient management and alternative fertilizers and cropping systems. Click here to learn more.
Global Methane Pledge
The livestock and dairy industries are a key part of the climate solution, implementing systems and practices that reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, including methane. At COP26 in November 2021, the European Union, the United States, and other partners committed to reduce methane emissions by at least 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030. Click here to visit the Global Methane Pledge website (external).
State Department Fact Sheet: From Moment to Momentum
Pathways to Dairy Net Zero
USDA is pleased to support Pathways to Dairy Net Zero, which is bringing together organizations throughout the dairy supply chain and dairy farms of every size and type around the world to collectively achieve net zero emissions in the next 30 years. Click here visit the Pathways to Dairy Net Zero website (external).
Sustainable Productivity Growth Coalition
USDA launched the Coalition for Sustainable Productivity Growth at the United Nations Food Systems Summit in 2021. The coalition is another channel for cooperation to foster more sustainable and climate-smart agriculture, while ensuring the availability and affordability of food around the world. Click here to learn more.
US-EU Collaboration Platform on Agriculture (CPA)
Launched in late 2021, the CPA is a joint endeavor between USDA and the EU Directorate-General for Agriculture (DG AGRI) to foster communication, information exchange, and mutual understanding as we work together to ensure a sustainable, climate-smart future for agriculture. Click here to learn more.
FAS has a global network of nearly 100 offices covering approximately 180 countries. These offices are staffed by agricultural attachés and local experts who work with host governments, international organizations, and local partners and land managers to address climate challenges. Learn more about USDA's climate-related activities in various parts of the world by contacting any one of our international offices.
Data and Analysis
Indonesia is a key stakeholder and an active participant at global environmental fora. Home to a vast swathe of rainforest, Indonesia is ranked as the world’s tenth largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG), mainly due to land-use change and energy sector emissions.
The impacts of climate change are beginning to manifest on the entire globe and particularly on developing countries like Ghana. The country is vulnerable to rising sea levels, droughts, increasing temperatures and erratic rainfall which adversely impacts infrastructure, hydropower production, food security and coastal and agricultural livelihoods.
At least 1.25 million poor farmers and 5 million indirect beneficiaries will benefit from Adapting Philippine Agriculture to Climate Change (APA), a $39.3-million project approved to foster climate-resilient agriculture (CRA), and develop the Philippine agriculture sector.
News and Features
September 19, 2023
FAS Highlights Climate-Smart Ag to South American Visitors
FAS hosted a delegation from Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay who came to the U.S. to learn about sustainable, climate-smart agriculture.
August 8, 2023
From Sky to Soil: Young Agricultural Leaders Nourish FAS Satellite Data with Grassroots Truth
Accurate crop mapping is a crucial process to informing reliable crop production estimates, addressing climate change, and developing strategies for sustainable agriculture. U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service is working with university students in Tanzania on a pilot project to gather grassroots data on grain, oilseed, and cotton crops to help strengthen community agricultural systems and improve crop condition assessments with satellite imagery.
May 22, 2023
USDA Climate Hubs Go Global
For more than a decade, USDA’s Climate Hubs has been at the forefront of supporting climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts for U.S. farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners. Last week, USDA significantly boosted its efforts globally, by launching the International Climate Hub.
Upcoming
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Nov 1
Dec 12
Dubai, United Arab Emirates