The impacts of agricultural trade and support policy reform on climate change adaptation and environmental performance

This study investigates whether agricultural policy reforms could help cushion the impacts of climate change on agriculture by facilitating the relocation of production and international trade. The agricultural sector faces immense challenges in ensuring the provision of food, farm incomes, employment and environmental services in a changing climate. Its ability to meet these challenges depends, in part, on the flexibility with which agricultural production can be relocated in response to agro-ecological and market conditions being reshaped by climate change in a sustainable manner. To better understand these interactions, this study employs a quantitative model to assess the economic and environmental effects of removing market distorting policies under climate change. The results suggest that the policy reforms could reduce the extent to which climate change increases agricultural commodity prices and undernourishment and, in that sense, contribute to global adaptation to climate change. Accompanying policy measures may however be required to prevent potential trade-offs associated with the reforms, including increases in land use emissions.