Climate Change Adaptation Insights from business perspective

Wolfgang Weinmann

CCXG Global Forum

OECD Centre , Paris, 18-19 March 2014

@Cafedirect_HQ

What will be covered

About Cafédirect

Understanding the problem & approach to cc

Why invest in cc adaptation

Interventions & investment

Learnings

Scaling up opps

What’s needed

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Mission

Cafédirect is an independent coffee, tea and cocoa company.

We champion the work & passion of smallholder growers, delivering great tasting drinks to improve livelihoods, whilst pioneering better ways of doing business

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Approach to climate change challenge

Farm-to-cup carbon footprint along full supply chain regardless of control or influence

Look into full picture: hence consider adaptation as much as mitigation on climate change challenge

seek collaboration to tackle the issues: b2b, public-private partnerships, engagement with end consumers

Integrated within overall business strategy, not a separate add-on

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Why invest in climate change

Supply:

reinvest in our supply chain of vulnerable tea/ coffee/cocoa communities to secure future quality & availability

Triple-bottom-impact:

High social- environmental impact investment

Env: improved agricultural practices; biodiversity enhancement; natural resource protection & restoration; improved resilience

Social: reduced vulnerability levels of smallholder communities; improved resilience

Story:

pioneering work = point-of-difference in the marketplace

Engages end consumers and customers alike with human side of product

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Interventions & investment

4 countries / 4 smallholder coffee/tea organisations/21,000 farmers: risk-opportunity analysis methodology developed; site-specific climate research & risk maps created; adaptation strategies prioritised and implemented; handbooks created; knowledge & information sharing secured;

Type of adaptation interventions: updated agricultural practices; diversification; new technology; natural resource management; awareness raising;

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Interventions & investment

mixture of public – private funding:

Cafédirect, giz/ Germany, smallholder organisations, voluntary carbon market, access to wider public/ private funding for smallholders

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Results so far for Cafédirect

Supply side: too early to tell….. adaptation measures on farm will take various years to materialise in yield and quality improvement and/or security

Triple-bottom-impact: Delivers big time on overall impact as a company: shareholders expect high social- environmental impact next to commercial

Smallholder farmers much more aware of issues & increased capabilities to adapt

Additional resources mobilised for smallholder communities

Story: Coverage of work in major UK broadsheets, in trade publications and environmental journals

Wide use of social media to spread the coverage of cc work

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Learnings

Farmers need to be in charge of process: all about their individual strategies

Kayonza/ Uganda

CESMACH/ Mexico

Needs stronger impact data to know what works best/ roi on adaptation side

Link up more with agricultural science community on this

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CESMACH/Mexico: solar dryers

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CESMACH/ Mexico: coffee quality control

Rolando Roblero López

scored highest (84.5 SCAA)

on quality in his community-

he did use a solar dryer!

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Learnings

Conservation of genetic diversity / selection of resistant plants

Financing of sustainable adaptation for agriculture – away from ‘aid’-approach towards market oriented tools (carbon trade; environmental services; etc.)

Conflicting cycles: short term business long term cc

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Replication/ Scaling up

Risk-Opportunity-Analysis ROA methodology now used by different stakeholders (RUTA/ Central America; giz/ Germany; smallholder organisations, Cafédirect Producers’ Foundation, etc.)

Adaptation initiatives rolled out to further 10 smallholder organisations across East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania) and Latin America (Mexico, Haiti, Dom Rep), reaching ≈ 55,000 farmers

Replication of ROA methodology, location specific adaptation strategy design, enhancing farm resilience

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Wider scaling up opps

Full integration of cc adaptation into smallholder business strategies, not in isolation

Access the voluntary carbon market: approach of linking various communities is promising eg reforestation, energy stoves, etc.

On-farm: more research/ tools on carbon capture available eg soil, shade trees, biochar etc.

Intra supply chain approach: joining up on other end

Industry bodies could convince competing brands/ companies to collaborate on upstream supply chain work

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What is needed from business?

Complete re-think on how we measure success

importance of Integrated Accounting

Beyond a crisis mentality- be more proactive

More significant collaboration across & between business, public sector and academia/ scientific community

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Kayonza/ Uganda project: wetland protection and afforestation