The Challenge: Climate action and sustainable agriculture

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Climate change is affecting every country on every continent. We know from the IPCC’s 2018 Special Report that Climate-related risks to livelihoods, food security and water supply among others are projected to increase with global warming of 1.5°C and increase further with 2°C. Yet today, the world is on track to warm by more than 3°C by 2100.

Farmers are one of the most vulnerable groups to climate change in both developing and developed nations, and are a cornerstone of every food supply chain including the hops and barley in our beers. There is an urgent need to ramp up efforts to help smallholder farmers in particular cope with existing changes and to adapt to future climatic conditions. The risk we face is that as a result of climate change, the stability of food supply globally is projected to decrease as the magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events that disrupt food chains increases.

Beyond responding to climate change, actions to reduce emissions are also urgently required within Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU), where activities account for 23% of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions. The largest contributors in this sector are methane produced by livestock and enteric fermentation, collectively accounting for 50% of agricultural emissions.

Overcoming these challenges requires new technologies and support to build new skills that can improve adaptive capacities and mitigate the effects of a changing climate.

About Xilinat

Javier Larragoiti founded Xillinat to respond to climate change.

Xilinat takes agricultural waste from farmers and turns it into xylitol, a natural low-calorie sugar alternative.  

Javier grew up in the outskirts of Mexico City near a community of poor farmers and recalled the considerable efforts taken to pile and incinerate agricultural waste, a process which contributes to massive amounts of toxic pollution today with over 64 million tonnes of agricultural waste annually incinerated in Mexico alone.  

Xilinat’s innovative circular solution supports poor farmers, mitigates disease by offering a safe sugar alternative for diabetics and also minimises pollution as the agricultural waste is recycled.

Xilinat aim to scale-up the business to an industrial scale with the support of Lead2030.