New global alliance of 36 national governments addressing food production and climate mitigation

Last Friday (24 June), anew global allianceconsisting of36 national governmentswas officially launched at a meeting in Rome.

The Alliance seeks to find ways ofincreasing food production without growing greenhouse gas emissions. The Alliance aims to address the fact that there isvery little researchfocused on reducing agricultural greenhouse gases, compared to other sectors like energy and transport.

The concept for the Alliance was launched by the New Zealand government in the margins of the 2009 UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.It brings together acritical mass of the worlds best scientistsin agricultural emissions research and technology and willaccelerate the pace of international effortsin this area for the benefit of all countries.

The Alliance is governed througha bottom-up approach, which means every participating country collaborates on its own goals and on agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. A diverse range of countries, fromAustralia, the United Statesandthe United Kingdomto Argentina, South AfricaandPakistan, have signed up to this vision and most recently,ChinaandSouth Korea.

The Alliance is increasingly gaining international recognition and commitment, with China among the latest countries to join, andPresident ObamaandPrime Minister Cameronrecently announcing their two countries commitment to working together through the Alliance.

For more information, visit the Alliance website: www.globalresearchalliance.org