Life Ada project: how farmers can cope with the effects of climate change
A few weeks after the event in Rome, last Wednesday 27 November 2024 the second closing event of Life Ada (ADaptation in Agriculture), a project co-funded with Life programme, took place in Brussels at the headquarters of the European Committee of the Regions.
The project is lead by UnipolSai Assicurazioni, while the other partners are the General Directorate of Agriculture of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Arpae Emilia-Romagna, Cia Agricoltori Italiani, Crea, Festambiente, Legacoop Agroalimentare Nord Italia and Leithà. The goal of increasing farmers’ resilience was pursued throught the enhancement of knowledge and risk management planning tools in three value chains: fruit and vegetable, dairy and wine production. The project was launched and implemented in Emilia-Romagna, and then extended to Veneto, Tuscany and Lazio.
R. Srsen (vice-president of the NAT commission at the European Committee of the Regions) and A. Mammi (Councillor for Agriculture, Hunting and Fishing, Emilia-Romagna Region) welcomed the participants at the beginning of the meeting.
In the first part focused on the project and its results, three speakers were engaged: S. Faccioli, project manager of Unipol Sai Assicurazione, G. Felice, head of the Competitiveness Sector of Emilia-Romagna Region and C. Maretti, president of Legacoop Agroalimentare. Among other things, they talked about knowledge transfer to producers on scenarios and adaptation measures, the regional strategy for managing climate-related risks in the agricultural sector and the guidelines developed during the project for producer organizations and institutions.
The moderator N. Dall’Olio introduced the round table on EU policies and farmers’ needs, with important institutional representatives such as G. Davila Diaz, Deputy Head of the Sustainable Agriculture Unit of the European Commission, M. Giansanti, President of Confagricoltura and Copa (the European Farmers’ Association), L. Vanoirbeekm for Areflh (the Assembly of European Horticultural Regions) and L. Gomez, Secretary General of Arepo (the European network of PDO/PGI producing regions).
Many insights and considerations were given, starting from the fragility of the agri-food sector towards extreme weather events or the need for a strong political strategy about climate change: EU should consider a dedicated budget, building a resilient system and looking into the future with a precise strategy beyond emergency response. Production capacity and the creation of value for supply chains must be promoted with better risk management: Life Ada Project is showing the path for adaptation to the effects of the climate crisis in agriculture.
Key actors of this change are certainly insurance companies that must work closely with regional institutions, research centers and operators to maintain farmers’ insurability in the long term, despite the increase in catastrophic and systemic risks. For this reason, the results of the Lide Ada project must be spread to orient decision making about adaptation and resilience.
Life Ada participates in Cop 29, the international meeting focusing on climate
The Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is held every year, rotating among the five recognized UN regions: the 2024 edition was hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan from 11 to 22 November.
World leaders, institutions and many other stakeholders gathered to work together on solutions to tackle climate change, in particular the objective of keeping the rise in global average temperature to ‘well below’ 2°C, and ideally below 1.5°C, as set in the Paris Agreement. Currently, 198 Parties (197 countries plus the European Union) take part to the conference.
Ada project and the role of insurance companies to facilitate the resilience of farmers were part of the agenda in the Italian Pavilion at Cop29: the presentation of 11 November 2024 was one of the 3 side-events organized by partners in the project implemented in Italy and financed by the Life program.
Download the meeting agenda
