The conference will help strengthen a scientific community on climate-smart agriculture (CSA), contribute to the development of a global research agenda, update knowledge on CSA, and provide recommendations for policymakers.

 The Montpellier global science conference on CSA:

• Will address key research issues, gather CSA facts and figures from developing and developed countries and support a collaborative effort with broad social participation. Special attention will be given to vulnerable countries and populations. It will therefore contribute to the strengthening of a CSA scientific community and will provide a further opportunity for developing a global research agenda.
• Will aim to reduce the science-policy gap. The conference takes place a few months before the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, Paris, France, December 2015). The COP21 will be a milestone in the international climate negotiations, with the goal that all countries are committed by a universal binding climate agreement. It is hoped that the COP21 will witness a “paradigm shift” where the climate challenge is not any more a necessary “burden sharing” of emissions, but also an opportunity for job creation and wealth, inventing new patterns of production and consumption. Therefore the Montpellier CSA conference will be a unique opportunity for the research community to update knowledge on CSA and to provide recommendations for policymakers.
• Will pave the road for future cooperation initiatives to be taken in terms of joint and collaborative scientific efforts.

“The third Global Science Conference on Climate -Smart Agriculture (CSA)” is part of a process initiated in October 2010 in The Hague by the Government of the Netherlands, culminating in the recent launch of the Global Alliance on Climate-Smart Agriculture in New York, September 2014.

Key Dates