Agriculture

The relationship between agriculture and climate change is complex: agriculture as a sector suffers from climate change – droughts and extreme weather events are dwindling in yields, creating existential risks and forcing far-reaching adaptation measures. On the other hand, intensive agriculture not only causes high levels of greenhouse gases but also causes deforestation – often with soil degradation, species extinction, water scarcity and water pollution. The globalized agricultural supply systems also lead to high transport and energy requirements – for example in the fertilizer production. On the other hand, the contribution of agriculture can not be dispensed with in the provision of renewable energies. The direct connection between land use and climate change is unavoidably clear, above all in the current “Climate Change and Land” report of the IPCC.

Arepo supports municipalities and decision-makers from politics and business in developing concepts for the agricultural sector and implementing them optimally. Typical services include monitoring and evaluation studies, as well as smaller consulting services.

Interesting here are holistic solutions that tackle questions of food, energy production and water supply (Food-Energy-Water-Nexus). This offers innovative potential, especially for rural areas. In this area, we also support the selection and evaluation mitigation and adaptation projects in the agricultural sector as part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI).