The third annual report of the UNEP Bilateral Finance Institutions (BFI) Climate Change Working Group shows total climate change financing for 2010 was USD 15.7 billion. That amount includes nearly USD 12.9 billion for mitigation and nearly USD 2.9 billion for adaptation.

Smallholders have important roles to play in both the prevention of dangerous climate change by reducing net global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and our global ability to adapt to climate change.

The United Nations has warned that the world is on the brink of another recession, projecting that global economic growth will slow down further in 2012 and even emerging powerhouses like India and China, which led the recovery last time, will get bogged down.

The recent International Panel on Climate Change special report on extreme weather and climate change presented a stark warning: extreme weather events are already on the rise and failure to take urgent action to reduce emissions will likely lead to an increase in the intensity and frequency of such events in future.