Tunis: Devising an integrated climate change adaptation strategy to reduce structural challenges to economic development, in general, and to the agricultural sector, in particular, is the main recommendation of the latest survey published by the Tunisian Institute of Competitiveness and Quantitative Studies (ITCEQ).
Entitled “Macroeconomic impacts and challenges of the agricultural sector’s adaptation to climate change” and conducted by ITCEQ under a cooperation projects with the French Development Agency (AFD), this survey calls for facilitating access to financing for farmers on the credit market.
Authors of the document also recommended “considering regional water pricing,” pointing out that “even with planned increases in water supply, the simultaneous achievement of water security and economic development requires substantial reductions in water elasticity in agricultural, industrial and service production through the adoption of water-efficient production techniques
The survey further revealed that e
conomic development and water security “require important public investments in research/development, education, infrastructure and renewables fields.
“The private sector is also called to invest in technology and innovation, notably in research/development, ICT, organisational change and human capital, which are the main levers of labour productivity.”
“The scale and cost of the economic losses caused by climate change vary considerably depending on the inflation scenarios used, producing a worsening of the main macroeconomic variables. The results of the climate scenario simulations show excessive public and current account deficits, leading to unsustainable external public balances. The persistence of such macroeconomic imbalances would be accentuated in the event of an increase in global food inflation.”
“Unless adaptation policies are devised, climate change is likely to exacerbate the economic situation. Adaptation solutions are therefore closely tied to a country’s economic priorities and its abilit
y to finance them,” concluded the document.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse