Earth Today | Climate resilience key to halting hunger: Part II

ACCESS TO food is significantly undermined by climate change, with evidence that spikes in food prices and increased price volatility follow climate variability and extremes.

Net buyers of food, especially the urban and rural poor, are the hardest hit by price spikes. Poor access to food increases the risk of low birthweight and stunting in children, which are associated with higher risk of overweight and obesity in life.

Food insecurity partly explains the coexistence of undernutrition and obesity in many countries. In 2017, childhood overweight affected 38 million children under five years of age, with Africa and Asia representing 25 per cent and 46 per cent of the global total, respectively.

Obesity in adults is also increasing at the global level: about 672 million adults were obese in 2017 - this represents more than one in eight adults. The increasing consumption of industrialised and processed food is the main cause behind the epidemic of overweight and obesity in the world today. If governments do not adopt urgent measures to halt the increase of obesity, we may soon have more obese people than undernourished in the world.

IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

The impacts of climate change are also taking a toll on foods' nutritional composition. Some studies indicate that higher levels of CO2 in the air are lowering the levels of vital nutrients, such as zinc, iron, calcium and potassium. This includes staple crops like wheat, barley, potatoes and rice.

Building climate resilience is a priority for winning the fight against hunger and other forms of malnutrition. The good news is that we have the knowledge and tools needed to begin to address this challenge. We also have experience and evidence pointing to the cross-cutting factors that support successful policies and practices to address climate risks.

Climate risk monitoring and early warning systems are proving essential for some governments and international agencies to monitor multiple hazards and predict the likelihood of climate risks to livelihoods, food security and nutrition.

We are also seeing efforts for investing in vulnerability reduction measures, including climate-resilient good practices at farm levels as well as climate-proof infrastructure (including food storage and preservation facilities) and more efficient water management (including irrigation, drainage, water harvesting and saving technologies, desalinisation and storm, and waste water management).

Farmers are also acting. For example, smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa are diversifying crops to spread production and income risk.

The challenge is to scale-up and accelerate such actions to strengthen the resilience of livelihoods and food systems to climate variability and extremes. We need integrated disaster risk reduction and management and climate adaptation policies, programmes and practises.

Tackling the impacts of climate change head-on - while sustaining peace - will help put us back on track towards meeting the global goal of zero hunger. However, we must act quickly.

- Jose Graziano da Silva is director-general for the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. You can send comments to pwr.gleaner@gmail.com.