5.1.2 Scope of the chapter and treatment of uncertainty

The scope of this chapter, with a focus on food crops, pastures and livestock, industrial crops and biofuels, forestry (commercial forests), aquaculture and fisheries, and small-holder and subsistence agriculturalists and artisanal fishers, is to:

• examine current climate sensitivities/vulnerabilities;
• consider future trends in climate, global and regional food security, forestry and fisheries production;
• review key future impacts of climate change in food crops, pasture and livestock production, industrial crops and biofuels, forestry, fisheries, and small-holder and subsistence agriculture;
• assess the effectiveness of adaptation in offsetting damages and identify adaptation options, including planned adaptation to climate change;
• examine the social and economic costs of climate change in those sectors; and,
• explore the implications of responding to climate change for sustainable development.

We strive for consistent treatment of uncertainty in this chapter. Traceable accounts of final judgements of uncertainty in the findings and conclusions are, where possible, maintained. These accounts explicitly state sources of uncertainty in the methods used by the studies that comprise the assessment. At the end of the chapter, we summarise those findings and conclusions and provide a final judgement of their uncertainties.