Climate change and food security are inextricably linked as the major challenges facing our global community. Action to tackle them will include the continued adaptation and technological innovation in agriculture and horticulture.

The recent Copenhagen Summit was spiced up by reports of leaked emails from climate researchers in Norwich suggesting that claims of man-made global warming were overblown, while a recent ICM poll found that nearly half of Britons do not believe global warming is caused by human activity.

But climate change sceptics need look no further than the pressures facing agricultural production worldwide for evidence that climate change is not only happening, but presents a serious threat to our ability to increase food supplies in line with a growing world population and changing consumption patterns.

Last year’s record high spike in commodity prices was, at least in part, the result of drought-hit harvests around the world, and climate experts predict that up to half the world’s productive arable land could be lost over the next 40 years due to the effects of climate change.

Closer to home, the European Commission’s Environment Directorate forecasts that the EU agricultural area classified as “high water stress” is set to increase from 19 per cent today to 35 per cent by 2070.

Within the UK, it is difficult to ignore the increasing frequency with which “once in 100-year” weather events - heavy rainfall and flooding in particular - have affected different regions of the country, often with devastating consequences for the local farming community.

At a global level, however, it will be the combined impact of rising temperatures, salinity and water scarcity that pose the greatest threat to food security, and many commentators have highlighted the moral responsibility of countries less vulnerable to these climate change effects, including the UK, to maximise their agricultural production.

According to the UN Food & Agriculture Organisation, agriculture accounts for around 14 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Within the EU-27, the figure is closer to nine per cent, but clearly the sector is a major contributor and current emission levels are not sustainable in the long term.

That is why the need to reconcile demands for increased agricultural productivity with reduced greenhouse gas emissions from farming activities was a key topic of discussion at Copenhagen.

It may be counter-intuitive for many, but there is firm evidence to demonstrate that the adoption of more intensive farming practices, including the responsible use of modern crop protection products, offers the most effective route to mitigate and cope with the effects of climate change.

More efficient weed control, for example, allows farmers to use fewer cultivations, so reducing both fuel used in farm machinery and the release of soil carbon into the atmosphere. Increased food productivity in the UK also reduces the amount of food we need to import, so reducing carbon emissions during transport. Looking ahead, a change in climate will bring new pests and diseases, and plant protection products will be vital to maintain and increase food production in the face of these challenges.

It is generally accepted that without pesticides to keep weed, pest and disease pressures in check, crop yields would fall by around a third. Meanwhile, a recent Cranfield University report has concluded that the manufacture and use of pesticides accounts for just three per cent of the 100-year Global Warming Potential of crop production, and that the yield increases attributed to pesticide use allow a 10-fold saving in CO2 equivalent per hectare,s relative to the CO2 emitted as a consequence of manufacturing pesticides.

In summary, increased food production efficiency offers the most effective response to the combined challenges of climate change and food security. Continued advances in science and technology will be essential to help scale up agricultural output on the same area of land, using less water and with reduced greenhouse gas emissions.