In 2011 the Natural Resources Initiative (NRI) completed a study on the implications of climate change for Fairtrade in agricultural products. The study was commissioned by the Fairtrade Foundation. The study indicates that climate change is projected, with high degrees of certainty, to have mainly negative impacts upon agricultural production, food security and economic development, especially in developing countries. It thus poses significant challenges for the Fairtrade movement.

This is an interesting paper comparing different smallholder dairy systems in Peru. (Bartl K, Gómez C A and Nemecek T (2011). Life cycle assessment of milk produced in two smallholder dairy systems in the highlands and the coast of Peru, Journal of Cleaner Production, in press.) Abstract

By 2050, humanity could devour an estimated 140 billion tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per year - three times its current appetite - unless the economic growth rate is "decoupled" from the rate of natural resource consumption, says a new report from UNEP’s International Resource Panel. Developed countries citizens consume an average of 16 tons of those four key resources per capita (up to 40 or more tons per person in some developed countries). By comparison, the average person in India today consumes four tons per year.

The Carbon Trust has conducted a fascinating analysis of how world-wide trade and consumption is driving international carbon flows. The findings are given in a series of linked reports, one focusing on international carbon flows overall, and the others focusing on key sectors: automotive, steel, aluminium, cotton, clothing. Note that the studies look at CO2 only and not the other GHGs (eg. methane and nitrous oxide), so a discussion of agriculture does not feature (cotton is looked at in terms of energy use from nitrogen manufacture and other associated fossil fuel use).

This report (Gustavsson J, Cederberg C, Sonesson U, van Otterdijk R and Meybeck A (2011) FAO, Rome) examines food waste in the industrialised world and the developing world. It finds that: Per capita, much more food is wasted in the industrialised world than in developing countries. Per capita food waste in Europe and North-America is 95-115 kg/year, while this figure in Sub-Saharan Africa and South/Southeast Asia is only 6-11 kg/year.

This paper (Druckman A, Chitnis M, Sorrell S and Jackson T (2011). Missing carbon reductions? Exploring rebound and backfire effects in UK households, Energy Policy Volume 39, Issue 6, Pages 3572-3581) examines the rebound effect. Households are expected to play a pivotal role in reducing the UK's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the UK Government is encouraging specific household actions to help meet its targets. However, due to the rebound effect, only a portion of the GHG emission reductions estimated by simple engineering calculations are generally achieved in practice.

Drought. Past Problems and Future Scenarios by Sheffield and Wood E F (2011, Earthscan), examines how UK Drought is one of the likely consequences of climate change in many regions of the world. Together with an increased demand for water resources to supply the world's growing population, it represents a potentially disastrous threat to water supplies, agriculture and food production, leading to famine and environmental degradation. Yet predicting drought is fraught with difficulty.