ABSTRACT
We focus next on identifying Factor Five opportunities in the agricultural sector because this sector currently has a significant global ecological footprint. As this Sector Study will show, this sector is responsible for 18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and 70 per cent of all freshwater withdrawals. However, the sector is also one of the most vulnerable to climate change – largely through reduced water availability and drier climates, which will hit those regions the hardest that depend on fresh water from annual snow or glacier melt. The potential negative impacts of climate change on the agricultural sector and in rural areas could be very serious because, according to the International Labour Organization in their 2005 World Employment Report, ‘75 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas, and agriculture employs 40 percent of workers in developing countries’.
