Jason LaChappelle, ISEAL Policy Team
Standards systems can no longer talk about their sustainability impacts without addressing climate change. With the increasing inevitability of a four degree temperature change, the implications of climate change have moved from future possibilities to present realities.
For standards systems, defining a clear contribution to climate change adaptation is not only a matter of securing business partnerships and protecting smallholders. It is also essential for maintaining standards’ relevance and credibility. Using the coffee sector as an example, climate experts, ISEAL members, and business leaders gathered to discuss what responses are needed to make supply chains and producers more climate-resilient.
International coffee community failing farmers
Peter Baker, Senior Scientist with CABI, an international agricultural research organisation, set the scene by illustrating how the coffee sector is failing to see the magnitude of the climate crisis and not offering adequate support to farmers. Citing examples of unprecedented rainfall in some coffee growing zones of Colombia and the spread of Coffee Wilt Disease in Eastern Africa, Dr. Baker argued that producers are receiving mixed messages about what should be done to adapt to climate risks.
A noted coffee and climate expert, Dr. Baker feels the response from the international coffee community has been lacking vision. The world’s coffee landscapes are undergoing tremendous change, yet there has been no concerted effort to map out how coffee production is both a cause and casualty of climate change.
Private sector responses to climate change
Offering the private sector perspective was Neil la Croix, Director of Sustainable Supply Chains with Kraft Foods. Describing how two of its main coffee origins - Brazil and Vietnam - are under threat by climate change, Mr. la Croix underlined the convergence of interests between producers trying to maintain their livelihoods and brands trying to secure sustainable supplies. Mr. la Croix believes the technology and expertise for adapting to climate change exists, but multi-stakeholder partnerships are necessary for transferring new tools, inputs and skills to farmers. He stressed that sustainability standards need to find models to expand to the huge numbers of coffee farmers who are not certified so that sustainability gains can be rapidly scaled up.
Standards introduce add-on climate modules
Oliver Bach of Rainforest Alliance and Lars Kahnert of 4C Association explained how their respective organisations have carved out a climate change role through the establishment of add-on modules to complement existing agricultural sustainability standards.
While the Sustainable Agriculture Network’s (SAN) voluntary module validates the climate content of existing agricultural best practice, Mr. Bach emphasised how the module signals a new step for standards systems and certified producers. It improves climate preparedness through risk assessment and capacity building in order to develop robust adaptation strategies at the farm level.
These initiatives also prove that standards can generate opportunities for farmers. For instance, the 4C Climate Code encourages the cultivation of a local climate network by connecting producers with relevant institutions. The SAN Climate Module positions farmers to access Payments for Environmental Services programmes.
Redefining sustainability?
Despite the novelty of new initiatives, Dr. Baker questioned whether standards systems are designed to deal with the scale of climate change. He argued that standards systems are mistakenly approaching climate adaptation at the farm level, attempting to fix the problem with “retrofitted modules” that overemphasise mitigation and expect too much from smallholders without providing deeper support.
Dr. Baker asserted that standards systems need to be assessing landscape-based issues such as water supply and the spread of invasive disease. He suggested that a well-buffered farm within an unstable coffee landscape can hardly be defined as sustainable, and that with the vice tightening on agricultural production, our definition of what constitutes certified, sustainable coffee must change.
Climate change is at the epicentre of sustainability debates for good reason. Its impacts on agriculture force us to restructure supply chains, develop new partnerships, and invest in tools in order to mount a comprehensive adaptation response that is commensurate with the scale of crisis.
No one would claim that standards systems alone are the solution, but there do exist many entry points for standards to promote climate resilience. Standards need to define a clear climate change role, and ensure that their infrastructure is designed to deliver on the climate goals they have set out. The livelihoods of farmers and the credibility of the standards movement depend on the contributions of standards systems to climate change solutions.
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