The Issues

Fighting Climate Change

Farmers are on the front line of climate change. Fairtrade supports farmers with tools, practices, and resources to become more resilient.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that around 80% of the world’s food comes from 500 million small-scale farms.

Fighting for Climate Resilient Communities

For farmers and workers in the Global South, climate change is not a far-off challenge; it is their everyday life. They are already experiencing decreasing crop yields, soil erosion, pests, diseases, and changing weather patterns. This changing reality affects farmers and their communities directly in the form of:

  • Income loss
  • Food insecurity
  • The need to change their business models
  • Increased costs for adaptation and mitigation

FAIRTRADE MAKES A DIFFERENCE WITH:

The Fairtrade Premium

As they know best what they need to become more resilient, producer organizations can spend the Fairtrade Premium as they see fit on projects such as tree planting, irrigation, crop diversification, and clean energy, which are more sustainable on a local level but also contribute to the global fight against climate change.

Fairtrade Carbon Credits

With Fairtrade Carbon Credits – in partnership with the Gold Standard – vulnerable communities can reduce emissions and become eligible for carbon credits while also strengthening themselves against the effects of climate change.

Fairtrade Climate Standard

Fairtrade’s unique, two-pronged approach helps farmers become more resilient to climate change, whilst at the same time giving consumers, retailers and traders the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint. All this is underpinned by the Fairtrade Climate Standard.

Fairtrade Climate Academy

Fairtrade has collaborated with 10,000 coffee farmers in Kenya to collect and implement best practices in adapting to and mitigating the impact of the climate crisis. Now, we are sharing this knowledge with coffee farmers worldwide, to help make them more resilient in the face of changing weather conditions.

fairtrade-cocoa

There will be a food shortage because of the heat whereas, before, there were a lot of forests, the rains were regular and the seasons were well divided. It was easier. There were four seasons, now we don’t know anymore when we should plant and when we should stop.

Ebrottié Tanoh Florentin
Cocoa Farmer, Côte d’Ivoire

We are receiving training from Fairtrade and can therefore make our contribution to reducing the effects of climate change by also growing trees on our plots, in other words diversifying cultivation.

Edgar Chasquero Ocaña
Coffee farmer at CENFROCAFE, Peru

I’ve planted trees, I use renewable sources of energy, I also have other income generating activities, but it is not enough.

Zeddy Chepkemoi
Coffee farmer, Kenya

Farmers on the Front Line

Across the globe, millions of farmers are on the frontline of climate change. See how Fairtrade is supporting farmers to cope with climate change and building climate resilience throughout the supply chain.

THERE IS NO CLIMATE JUSTICE WITHOUT FAIRTRADE

Learn more about the programs, policies, and projects we are working on to address climate breakdown.