Global food systems are failing humanity and speeding up climate change: New report from 130 national academies issues wake-up call to leaders on eve of COP24
The following is a study detailing changes that need to be made to global food systems to mitigate climate change.
With COP24 starting next week - alongside meetings today on food security at the European Commission and FAO/IFPRI in Bangkok - there is now a vitally important opportunity to drive collective action worldwide to transform global food systems and mitigate climate change. Today, 130 national academies of science and medicine have united to urge policy-makers to take immediate action on climate change to improve the sustainability of global food systems. In a wide-ranging new report, Opportunities for future research and innovation on food and nutrition security and agriculture: The InterAcademy Partnership's global perspective, the authors call for an end to business as usual and urge leaders to look to science to drive innovation and inform policy.
“Our food systems are failing us. Next week at COP24, we need to see leaders take action on climate change and go beyond political statements. It is not only the environment that is at stake, but health, nutrition, trade, jobs and the economy. Agriculture and consumer choices are major factors driving disastrous climate change. We need a robust and ambitious policy response to address the climate impacts of agriculture and consumer choices – and scientists have a major role to play. Our new report is a wake-up call to leaders”, said Professor Joachim von Braun, Co-chair of the IAP project on Food and Nutrition Security and Agriculture, President of the Pontifical Academy of Science, and Director of the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn.
2018 has revealed precisely how vulnerable food systems are to extreme weather and other results of man-made climate change. Moreover, agriculture, forestry and land-use change alone – not including food transport and other energy-intensive processes – contribute around 20 to 25% to global annual emissions. The latest Special Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made clear that a 2°C increase of global temperature must be avoided at all costs. In 2018, FAO noted that the absolute number of undernourished people has continued to increase, between 2016 and 2017, and other nutrition targets are also being missed. Climate extremes and variability are threatening to erode and reverse previous gains made. The drive for calories in food production is causing health challenges, including obesity. Climate change is exacerbating food and nutrition insecurity and inequalities.
“This is no time for business as usual. In addition to climate change, our current food systems are negatively impacting people’s health around the globe. High-calorie diets have become cheaper, and this has serious implications for public health, obesity, and malnutrition. Science is critical to tackling the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, hunger and health,” said Professor Volker ter Meulen M.D., Co-chair of the IAP project on food and agriculture and President of IAP, the InterAcademy Partnership.
There is an urgent need to strengthen evidence-based policies and programmes and invest in solving the most critical challenges of our times: mitigating climate change through changes to food production and consumption, and ensuring that people globally have access to nutritious, affordable and environmentally sustainable food. These issues are not only critical for health and the environment but also the global economy, trade and jobs. Climate-smart agriculture; incentives for consumers to change their diets; innovative foods; and cutting-edge technologies combined with rigorous social science are indispensable for addressing the root causes of our failing global food system.
What kinds of changes need to be made?
