Farmers are on the front line of climate change. For millions of farming communities worldwide, the impacts of changing weather patterns are a daily reality. Their crops are directly threatened by such developments and therefore putting their livelihoods at risk.

Solutions to climate change are beyond complex, but it is clear switching towards more sustainable ways of production is an imperative if we are to rise above it. However, it would not be fair for farmers to burden all the costs of doing so when considering they often still struggle to earn a living income. There is no climate justice without social justice. Fairtrade believes it is not possible to separate the two, and therefore take a holistic approach, working on both social and environmental issues.

To further deepen their work and support on climate matters, Fairtrade International became of the Cool Farm Alliance in June 2021 and joined our mission to enable millions of growers globally to make more informed on-farm decisions to reduce their environmental impact.

‘By becoming a member we are looking to improve the positive impact of producers through carbon sequestration, agroecology and agricultural practices that further lead to poverty alleviation and the protection of biodiversity.’ Juan Pablo Solis, Fairtrade International Senior Advisor, Climate and Environment.

The power of informed on-farm decisions

Fairtrade International is currently commissioning several studies to determine the carbon or water footprint of their products across various regions. They have case studies and estimations for bananas, flowers and sugar, with cotton and rice in the pipeline. For all of these, they will be using the Cool Farm Tool to determine the Green House Gas emissions at farm level.  With the insights Fairtrade aims to better identify hotspots and areas of improvement at product level, which could lead to new opportunities for income diversification and climate mitigation projects.

Daniella Malin, Deputy General Manager of the Cool Farm Alliance comments on the new membership:

‘We are thrilled that Fairtrade is joining the Cool Farm Alliance. Together the two organisations can work at the juncture between poverty alleviation and climate change mitigation, a juncture long known to be critical to the success of both efforts.”

In the future, Fairtrade also will further assess how the use of the Cool Farm Tool could help Fairtrade farmers and workers take even more informed decisions, and reduce their vulnerability against environmental risks.

For more information on Fairtrade and the Environment, visit the dedicated page.