Measuring Progress Towards the WBCSD Statement of Ambition on Climate-Smart Agriculture: Improving Businesses’ Ability to Trace, Measure and Monitor CSA

At the Paris climate summit in 2015, the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) announced a set of 2030 ambitions under the three pillars of climate smart agriculture (CSA), namely productivity, resilience and mitigation. Based on work under WBCSD’s workstream to improve businesses’ ability to trace, measure and monitor CSA, this working paper provides (a) a simple framework, (b) sets of recommended indicators, and (c) a stock-take of the current status of CSA progress under each of the three pillars, both globally and among WBCSD member companies. The purpose is to inform future monitoring and reporting on CSA among member companies, both individually and collectively. For pillar 1, productivity, we are exceeding targets for global food production. However, we have less information on whether this food is nutritious, available and affordable, or whether we are achieving higher productivity per unit of input, and sustainable use of resources, not just higher production. For pillar 2, resilience, there is insufficient company or global data to monitor the resilience and welfare of agricultural communities and landscapes under climate change. A high priority is collection of activity data on provision and adoption of positive environmental (e.g. agroecological) and social (e.g. climate information and financial) approaches among farmers. For pillar 3, mitigation, we are falling behind targets for agricultural and food system emissions. While there have been some impressive improvements in emissions intensity for some foods and beverages, increasing levels of production mean that absolute emissions are rising. This early snapshot of progress can hopefully stimulate shared learning and renewed investment, ahead of future collective reporting by WBCSD