Climate change provides many new opportunities for British farmers, like tea and energy crops, but also poses challenges including the threat of new insects and diseases, a British government minister said. "We want to see farmers seize opportunities for new crops that a changing climate is going to bring," junior environment minister Ian Pearson said on Sunday. "Farmers have grown the first tea crop in Cornwall which has sold for high prices in the London shops," he said, also citing maize, sunflower and soybeans as crops which may be grown in Britain under some future climate change scenarios.

Pearson, who was attending one of Britains largest agricultural events, the Royal Show, also said he saw a "really significant opportunity" for farmers in energy crops. Crops such as grains and oilseeds can be grown to produce motor fuels bio-ethanol and bio-diesel which are substitutes for fossil fuels. Biofuels are expected to help reduce the greenhouse gases which have been linked to climate change. Other crops such as large grasses and coppice willow can be grown to produce electricity and heat.

Pearson, however, said climate change also posed major challenges. "The significant decrease in cold snaps in Britain, together with an overall warmer climate and wetter winters, increase risks of new pests and diseases," he noted. Pearson described climate change as the biggest long-term challenge to the human race and said Britain must do more to help tackle it. "We need to do more as a government domestically. I dont think frankly that we have credibility internationally in arguing that we need to tackle climate change if we cant credibly show we are leading the way domestically, he said.

Pearson noted that Britain was not on course to meet its own target of a 20 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010, noting latest figures indicated a 16.2 percent cut would be achieved. He said there was a need to reach an international agreement on climate change with key countries such as the United States, China and India. "Let no one be under any illusion this is a huge task and trying to get international agreement with some of these countries is going to be enormously difficult," Pearson said.
(Por Nigel Hunt, Planet Ark, 04/07/2006)