Home > Briefs > Climate change

Climate change

Slide5
Download the brief
Download the summary

“Climate change is creating the conditions in which we have to find a way to provide nutrition to a growing global population. This means that we need to come together as an agriculture, nutrition and public health community to find solutions to what is becoming a growing problem” 

Rachel Kyte, Global Panel member and World Bank Climate Change Envoy

 

The Global Panel contributes to COP21 with a side event to explore the policies needed to achieve food and nutrition security under climate change.

Read the Panel's Statement on Climate Change 

The need for action

By 2050, about half of the world’s population is at risk of being undernourished as a result of rising food demand and a potentially compromised supply affected by climate change. By 2100, up to 40% of the world’s land surface will have to adapt to altered climates. In each decade through to 2050, agricultural output is projected to fall by 2%, while food demand will rise by 14%. Urgent policy action is needed to link food system resilience with higher quality diets and nutrition.

Climate change and agriculture seen through a nutrition lens

Promoting higher production of staple crops will not be enough to make agriculture more resilient to climate change. While evidence of effective climate change actions remains scarce, there is ample evidence already of how diets and food systems are adversely affected by weather shocks and price volatility. Climate-smart actions which support nutrition means focussing on diverse, high quality and healthy diets.

“The world needs agriculture to be climate-smart and also nutrition-smart. We need to meet the needs of communities and nations in these shifting climates and must work to create agriculture and food production systems that are diverse, efficient and resilient,” comments President Kufuor, Co-Chair of the Global Panel and former President of Ghana.

Global Panel’s Policy Brief

Policy makers can make a significant difference to ensure healthy diets for people at every stage of life. The Global Panel’s policy brief Climate-smart food systems for enhanced nutrition urges decision makers to adopt a pro-nutrition lens while protecting and promoting agriculture in the face of climate change.

Ahead of the Paris climate negotiations, Climate-smart food systems for enhanced nutrition explains the challenges of meeting both agricultural and nutritional needs in the face of climate change. It identifies specific opportunities for policy change that can simultaneously enhance food and nutrition security.

 Watch the animated video on Climate-smart food systems for enhanced nutrition