Fairtrade’s Coffee Standard now includes the coffee&climate (c&c) toolbox, an open online platform that provides coffee farmers with resources to effectively tackle climate change.
This standard encourages the development and adaption of climate plans, and encourages sustainable production while ensuring the well-being of coffee producers. This includes identification of climate risks and the creation of climate adaption plans, based on introducing sustainable agriculture practices.
“Producers need access to information and the right tools to increase their climate resilience,” says Juan Pablo Solis, Senior Advisor Climate and Environment at Fairtrade International.
“Creating climate adaption plans is a crucial steppingstone toward being able to cope with the effects of climate change and remain actively involved in markets.”
Fairtrade’s coffee producing families are encouraged to use c&c’s toolbox, which includes climate maps, case studies, and training materials to learn about climate-smart agriculture (CSA).
“We appreciate the move from Fairtrade International to include the c&c toolbox into the coffee standard,” says Stefan Ruge, coffee&climate Program Manager at Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung.
“The c&c toolbox is not only a great platform to exchange knowledge on known and innovative climate-smart agricultural practices. The tools are identified and tested alongside farmers, extensionists, and some of the world’s leading climate experts.”
Fairtrade says that the toolbox provides guidance to farmers and producing organisations on individual climate adaption plans.
“Its five-step approach is easy to understand and implement. Fairtrade hopes that farming families and small-scale farmer organisations will get inspired by the toolbox when preparing their climate adaptation plans,” says Fairtrade International.
c&c is focused on creating pre-competitive public and private partnerships that support coffee producers and their communities with responding to climate change.
“The coffee industry needs to start reflecting more deeply about fair value distribution in order to put climate adaption and mitigation at its forefront,” says Giovanna Michelotto, Project Manager Standards at Fairtrade International.
“It would absolutely not be fair to expect from producers, who are sometimes not even earning a living income, to absorb all costs of switching towards sustainable production.”
c&c says since it was founded in 2010, it has developed and implemented climate change responses in seven regions across the globe, with more than 92,000 coffee farmers currently supported by the initiative. By 2024, c&c aims to reach an additional 80,000 families in its third phase of implementation.
For more information, visit www.coffeeandclimate.org