Experts Issue Roadmap to Avert Post-Pandemic Food Shocks Caused by Climate Change

With COVID-19 intensifying hunger even in wealthy countries, influential food, agriculture and environment experts from six continents today responded to this bracing wake-up call with an ambitious roadmap for resetting food systems that were already being hit hard by climate change.

It offers the most comprehensive global plan to date to rebuild all types of food production around the world—from smallholder farming to large-scale production—that have been rocked by the pandemic but will face even greater challenges from climate change.

The report, “Actions to Transform Food Systems Under Climate Change,” was developed under the guidance of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

It comes close on the heels of a new assessment from the United Nations warning the pandemic could precipitate a “global food emergency.” The UN is especially concerned about food systems in places like sub-Saharan Africa that prior to the pandemic were reeling from a surge in droughts and floods—and where global heating is likely involved in East Africa’s ongoing battle against locust swarms.

“It’s time for all of us to get talking about food and most importantly about food systems,” said David Nabarro, a World Health Organization Special Envoy for COVID-19 and Curator of the Food Systems Dialogue who is kicking off a round-the-world “relay” briefing on the action plan. “That’s all the different elements—from food production to processing to marketing and consumption, and all the steps along the way.”

The report lays out a clear, 11-part plan—and points to a wide number of readily available innovations—that can make food systems far more resilient to both climate and non-climate shocks.

The 11 actions (listed in detail below this document) include efforts to sustainably increase food production in developing countries in ways that increase incomes and food security in poor, agriculture-dependent rural communities. Doing so, the report states, could dramatically reduce the need for humanitarian assistance in the coming years, freeing up billions of dollars for investing in social safety nets. The report also offers strategies to avoid expanding food production into carbon-rich tropical forests and explores options that can support healthy, climate-friendly diets.

In addition, the report lays out a policy framework for directing US$320 billion in public and private finance to food systems transformation. And it seeks more support for “youth-centered social movements” committed to building sustainable food systems, noting they can be especially effective agents of change.

“Our work over the last 10 years to address the impacts of climate change on food production, and vice versa, has produced a series of transformative interventions that can energize efforts to ‘build back better’ in the aftermath of COVID-19,” said CCAFS Director Bruce Campbell. “This endeavor is especially important for several hundred million smallholder farmers in the developing world. They were already struggling against climate change before this pandemic hit and will face even greater climate threats long after it has ended.”

Climate Change: The Slow-Moving Counterpart to COVID-19

While there are concerns the pandemic could significantly increase hunger and malnutrition in the short-term, the report points to even greater dangers looming in the coming decade as temperatures rise, weather extremes become more common and rainfall less predictable. It cites recent research findings noting that:
 

• By 2050, climate change could displace 200 million people, the equivalent of roughly two-thirds of the population of the United States.
• Rain-fed crop production that currently sustains Southern Africa may not be possible in most of the region.
• Fish catches will decline by up to 10% in tropical regions.
• Droughts, floods and heat waves will become more frequent and intense. Just a small increase in drought severity alone could raise the risk of violent conflict in places like Somalia.
• By 2050, the impact of elevated carbon dioxide emissions on crop nutrients could cause an additional 175 million people to suffer zinc deficiency and 133 million to become protein deficient. 

Food Solutions from Around the World Present Opportunities in Time of Crisis

At the same time, the report offers an abundance of evidence that farmers and food systems around the world are not destined for disaster—especially if the lessons from COVID-19 awaken action to confront climate impacts. The launch today features more than a dozen farmers and influential food and agriculture voices speaking live in a global “relay” from Ethiopia, Australia, Vietnam, India, Mali, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Colombia and the United States. They will present a wide array of solutions for creating a new era of climate-smart food production.

CLAP GH advocates green environment for infection-free living

Environmental group, CLAP GH has reiterated the need for attention to be given to protecting the environment as a means to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

In commemoration of World Environment Day, the group is encouraging individual and group tree planting drives for a clean healthy environment to fight pollution and diseases.

About one quarter of global disease is linked to the environment or caused by environmental factors that could be changed, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The environment influences our health through the air we breathe, the water we drink, radiation and noise, the work environment, and also the climate and ecosystem.

Polluted air causes respiratory diseases; unclean water and lacking sanitation causes diarrhea; poorly-managed water bodies cause vector diseases such as malaria.

The WHO says more than 3.5 million deaths each year are from respiratory infections, diarrhea disease and malaria alone.

Often the practice has been to wait for diseases to happen before resources are deployed for treatment afterwards.

Living Clean, Green and Healthy

Scientists have observed that taking care of the environment and keeping it clean directly affects the health of the environment we live in.

Interventions that will help develop a better and cleaner air, clean and safe water, is critical to promote good health.

The Climate, Livelihoods & Agriculture Platform (CLAP GH) is therefore constituted to build synergy along the Science, Environment and Agriculture nexus to drive a common goal of addressing climate change for sustainable development.

“We believe that in as much as the global economies are being disrupted, health systems and people being affected, there is the need for us as individuals to think about how we need to be clean and cater for the environment as part of the actions to bring this coronavirus to a halt,” said Environmentalist Kofi Adu Domfeh, who is convener of CLAP Gh.

“While we are fighting Coronavirus in the short term, climate change is for the long term, and the actions we are taking to mitigate and adapt should be more focused even at this time than ever before”.

The call is to ensure a clean and healthy environment which is very crucial to curtail most of the things that help the virus to grow.

Climate Scientist at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor Isaac K. Tetteh, admonishes the society to be mindful of actions that might pollute the environment.

He emphasizes the importance for every individual helping to manage the micro environment because poor environmental quality makes the society susceptible to many diseases.

“Poor environmental quality can make us highly susceptible to many diseases in the environment. We need to look at our environment and keep it clean so that we don’t become vulnerable to the COVID-19 and other diseases, so we can enjoy infection-free environment,” said Professor Tetteh.

In the face of the COVID-19, the little we can do at the individual level in protecting the environment is attitudinal change towards the environment.

“We must adhere to strict etiquette [no spitting around] and coughing freely into the air, and indiscriminate nasal discharges around. This ‘normal’ practice in Ghana contributes much to polluting the environment,” he noted.

Planting CoronaVirus Trees

Healthy environments are the key for better health. Policy makers are expected to take decisions and actions to protect the environment.

CLAP GH is however calling on individuals and groups to endeavor to plant trees in commemoration of World Environment Day as contribution to promote an infection-free environment.

The "CoronaVirus Tree Planting” campaign is to encourage collective actions to protect the environment even as the planet survives this pandemic.

CLAP Gh believes the world must not lose sight of the need to take collective action on climate adaptation and mitigation.

The environmental group mobilizes young professionals to become part of the momentum created by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change to partner all interest groups to share knowledge and take action.