Fairtrade model and the climate challenge

Sustainability concerns are part of our everyday lives, and it is likely that you are both worried about climate change and also want to support the concept of Fairtrade and help improve conditions for small scale farmers and plantation workers in Africa, South America and Asia.
Carbon emissions must reduce rapidly over the coming years, but we also have to deal with the consequences of the climate change that is already happening and that is affecting peoples’ livelihoods across the world.
How should you choose a sustainable product? There are always many stages of production between soil and supermarket, and each has its own impacts.  In the following sections, Fairtrade Denmark will explain our approach to climate change by answering three central questions.
 

1: How does the Fairtrade model tackle climate change?

Fairtrade works with our certified producers to help them organise in their communities, and the Fairtrade premium funds that they receive can be used by the community to invest in improving farming efficiency and sustainability while reducing waste and energy use in production.

Coffee farmer Gerardo Arias Camacho from Costa Rica tells us how his farming cooperative have used their Fairtrade premium fund to buy climate-friendly ovens in which to dry their coffee beans. The ovens are fuelled by burning waste coffee bean skins and nut shells, which means that the farmers no longer have to cut down fifty acres of trees each year.

Similarly in India, tea farmers have invested their Fairtrade premium money in solar panels to replace wood burning for heating in homes. This has benefits for both the local environment and reduces carbon emissions.
 

2: Fairtrade products travel thousands of miles to reach our shops. Don’t these products have a big carbon footprint?

A recent study of food products in the United States suggested that transport only makes up around 11% of a good’s total carbon footprint. Most emissions result from production processes such as machinery use, chemical use, heating and cooling processes and packaging. 

One concrete example is roses grown in Kenya, which are the only Fairtrade product transported to Europe by plane. Nevertheless, roses grown in Kenya release overall less carbon than roses grown in a Dutch greenhouse because of the high levels of energy used in artificially heating greenhouses all year round. Kenyan roses take far less energy to produce, and despite their transport by plane they have a lower impact.

Another example is cane sugar. A Swiss supermarket analysed beet sugar grown in Switzerland and organic cane sugar from Paraguay and found that the cane sugar from Paraguay had a 40 % smaller carbon footprint than the sugar made in Switzerland. The Paraguayan sugar is cultivated with no use of pesticides and fertilisers, and without the extensive use of polluting machinery. In addition, the sugar cane waste can also be used to generate energy on site.These are very concrete examples and obviously each product is made in different circumstances.

The point is that long distance transportation is not necessarily an indicator of a higher carbon impact. The carbon emissions of production are just as important to consider if you want to shop for the climate.
 

3: How does Fairtrade help farmers adapt to climate changes that they are already experiencing?

Social sustainability is the core mission of the Fairtrade movement, and a changing climate is one of the major challenges we are facing in our long-term work. Many Fairtrade-certified farmers will be among the first victims of climate change. The financial security that Fairtrade offers (through stable contracts, minimum prices and strict trading standards) means that farmers can make more long-term investments in their farming methods. 

For example, a group of coffee farmers in Uganda have been planting trees around their coffee bushes to increase shade and reduce the higher temperatures that have a damaging effect on the bushes.

Furthermore, Fairtrade works to help producers in emergency situations, when severe weather is destroying fields and harvests. Two years ago a group of banana producers in Dominica had 75 % of their harvest destroyed because of violent rain and hurricanes: weather events that are likely to become more frequent as global warming intensifies. Fairtrade staff helped to negotiate a loan from the government to buy new plants and manure.

Fairtrade is tackling the challenge of climate change throughout our work, encouraging farmers to reduce emissions but also helping them to adapt to the local climate impacts. Fairtrade will continue to focus on working and living conditions for farmers and workers in Africa, South America and Asia. It is very important that in the fight to minimise the climate threat we do not forget the people around the world who are on the front line in this fight.