Download It`s not The `air miles` that matter! What really matters?

It’s not The ‘air miles’
that matter!
As popular understanding of climate change grows, so
people understandably seek ways in which they can take
action to reduce the negative impact of their behaviour on the
environment. Many ethical consumers have faced the dilemma
of whether to buy Fairtrade or local. People worry that products
imported from developing countries have a heavier impact on the
environment due to the distance they travel.
But the reality is not that simple. An increasing body of evidence
shows that it is simply wrong to assume that products from
developing countries automatically have a worse impact on the
climate and the environment than products grown in the UK
or Europe.
Some key facts:
• The vast majority of Fairtrade products are transported into
the UK by ship. Of all Africa’s export of fruit and vegetables,
90% travels by ship, which has the lowest per tonne impact of
any transport mode. Air freight accounts for only 0.3% of total
UK greenhouse gas emissions against the 8% associated with
meat and dairy production.
• The distance a product has travelled is often not significant in
terms of a product’s total life-cycle emissions. It is far more
relevant to consider the total carbon footprint of a product.
For instance, an analysis of the lifecycle emissions for a cup
of tea, carried out for Cafédirect, found that 93% of the carbon
emissions from a daily cup of Teadirect comes from boiling
the kettle.
• Under the right conditions, agricultural exports can help reduce
poverty. Research has shown that export agriculture is critical
in reducing rural poverty in Uganda and Vietnam. Far from
displacing food production, export success in both countries
has gone hand in hand with an increase in output of basic
food staples.
What really matters?
Our response to the climate crisis, from the individual to the
global level, should not only be environmentally effective, but
should also have justice and equity at its heart. If we really
want to make a substantial reduction in food-related carbon
emissions, there are many other choices we can make as
individual consumers that can have a significant impact on
carbon emissions, without compromising opportunities for
producers in developing countries.
Send us your feedback
Read our full discussion paper at
www.fairtrade.org.uk/climatereport
We welcome your feedback, especially any additional
information, case studies or suggestions for how the Fairtrade
movement as a whole can respond to the challenge of climate
change. Please email [email protected]
Summary of the
Fairtrade Foundation
Discussion Paper
October 2009
Using public transport is one way to reduce our carbon footprint
Why climate change
is an issue for the
Fairtrade movement
At the simplest level, climate change is not fair. The science tells
us that climate change is already happening and will continue to
happen with increasingly severe impacts.
Those at the heart of the Fairtrade movement, poor farmers and
workers in developing countries (who have done least to cause
the mess), are at the very frontline of the climate crisis. These
communities are reporting that climate change is already having
a significant impact on their livelihoods and their wellbeing.
Baluku Yofesi, the Executive Director of the Karughe Farmers
Partnership in Kasese district of Western Uganda:
‘We used to have much more rainfall than we are having
now, that’s one big change, and to me this area is hotter
than 20 years ago. Because of the shortened rains you
have to go for early maturing varieties and now people
are trying to select these. That’s why some local varieties
of pumpkins and cassava that need a lot of rain, even
varieties of beans, have disappeared.’
Willington Wamayeye, Managing Director of Gumutindo Coffee
Co-operative (a supplier to Fairtrade company, Cafédirect):
‘Rains now fall heavily for a short period and our dry
season is much longer. The coffee plants are badly
affected – flowering is stopping. Last year alone we lost
about 40% of our production.’
The Fairtrade movement has always fought to support small
farmers in their quest to find solutions to the challenges they
face. As the climate crisis looms we will continue to do so. Our
experience and networks mean that we are uniquely placed to
play a specific role in the global response to climate change.
challenges
for poor producers
in adapting to
climate change
Poor farmers are renowned for their adaptability and resilience
in the face of adverse weather and other challenging conditions.
However, as climate change creates ever more erratic and less
predictable weather patterns, farmers will find their accumulated
experience a less reliable guide to the future than it has been
in the past. In response to this unpredictability, poor farmers
will often be pushed into lower risk and therefore less profitable
activities. Without the right support they could sink ever deeper
into a ‘poverty trap’, forced to concentrate on survival rather than
following their aspirations and improving their lives.
There are a number of reasons why poorer farming communities
in developing countries are at a particular disadvantage to be
able to react to climate change. These include:
How Fairtrade can
support PRODUCERS
in adapting to climate
change
Fairtrade is one way we in the richer world can help support poor
producers as climate change kicks in.
The payment of an agreed minimum price and the additional
Fairtrade premium in the Fairtrade system has already allowed
producers to invest in diversifying and strengthening their
business. In some cases, Fairtrade has begun to help alleviate
the problem of limited credit availability through the option of
setting up micro finance schemes using the Fairtrade premium.
There are also many examples where producer groups have used
their Fairtrade premium in ways that reduce carbon emissions
and make them less vulnerable to future energy price rises.
• Poor rural areas often lack insurance and credit services
However, given the potential scale and impact of climate change
it is clearly important for the Fairtrade movement to consider
what else it could be doing. Ideas already in discussion include:
• There is always a cost associated with a switch to different
farming practices and poor farmers often do not have the
knowledge and money to support a switch
• Building the capacity of Fairtrade co-operatives and networks
to co-ordinate with other parts of civil society to share
information, plan and act on climate change
• Switching away from what you know is inherently risky and
poorer farmers are less able to accept risk than the relatively
better off and will tend to diversify towards lower risk, and
therefore less profitable activities
• Developing public/private partnerships, like Cafédirect’s
innovative AdapCC programme, to help channel funds directly
and effectively to vulnerable communities: www.adapcc.org
In Uganda, Florence Madamu, from Bulirehe village in
Bundibugyo district says:
• Developing new credit and financing mechanisms within the
Fairtrade system, building on models already in place, eg
the technical assistance fund established by the Fairtrade
Foundation to support African producers
‘We’ve stopped even adopting seasonal planting,
because it’s so useless. Now we just try all the time.
We used to plant in March and that’d be it. Now we
plant and plant again. We waste a lot of seeds that way,
and our time and energy. We regret it so often, why we
planted. Then we have to plan to acquire other seeds,
and the seeds here are very costly. Sometimes you feel
like crying. Sometimes you’ve hired labour and you end
up losing all that money for preparing your land’1.
• Developing a debate putting Fairtrade, and more broadly,
equity and fairness, at the heart of the concept of sustainability,
and raising awareness within the citizens’ movement for
Fairtrade of how to reduce your carbon footprint and increase
your social footprint – buy less, but buy better
1 Oxfam (2008), Turning up the Heat: Climate change and poverty in Uganda (Oxfam GB).
Willington Wamayeye,
Uganda
School built using Fairtrade
premium funds, Mali
Mamouna Keita, Mali