If climate change continues at its current rate, global food production could plummet by at least 30 percent by 2050. A top U.N. official made the stark warning as world leaders met for the second week of the annual U.N. Cop 27 climate summit.
Deputy Director of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Zitouni Ould-Dada said global food supplies are already at a bad rate, thanks to a combination of climate change and supply chain disruptions.
There have been big issues to supply chains from the Covid pandemic, which are exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Climate change is also badly affecting world food supplies, with natural disasters such as floods, droughts, and storms wreaking havoc on crops.
“If this rate of climate change-induced droughts and flooding continues, there will at least be a 30 percent drop in global food production by 2050,” Ould-Dada said.
Ould-Dada’s focus includes climate change, biodiversity, and the environment. Another big issue plaguing food security is food waste.
The world throws away around 931 million tonnes of food, making up a shocking third of global food. It ends up in landfills, decomposing and producing approximately a tenth of the world’s global-warming gases.
In 2015, nations around the world pledged to halve food waste by 2030. Sadly few are on track to actually accomplish this.
Ould-Dada said limiting the rise of the planet’s temperature at 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels was a do-or-die target. He cautioned that the current 1.2° C rise has proven bad enough, and 1.5° C could well be disastrous.
Scientists initially said to keep it under 2.0 C and then modified it to 1.5 C. Now, scientists are saying that 1.5 C could be a threat to humanity.
“Look at what 1.2° has brought upon us already. We are frightened by what we have to deal with now and even more so about 1.5°,” he said.
Be the first to comment