Climate change linked to world hunger in upcoming Oxfam report

Climate change threatens crop production, food security, food quality and human health according to an upcoming Oxfam report, Growing Disruption.

 

The Oxfam report also said that the tropics and subtropics in general might experience a fall in crop yields by 10 to 20 percent by 2050 because of climate change.

 

They expect the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to confirm these results in the presentation of the fifth assessment report (AR5) of Working Group I in Stockholm, Sweden on Friday.

 

These links between climate change and hunger include reduced production, and nutritional value of both crops and livestock, which then leads to poor human health and lower income, Oxfam said in a press release.

 

A statistic from the 2011 Oxfam report Growing a Better Future, Food justice in a resource constrained world showed that the average price of staple foods is likely to more than double in the next 20 years compared with 2010 trend prices – with up to half of the increase caused by climate change.

 

“We want a world in which everyone enjoys the right to enough affordable and nutritious food, and we cannot allow climate change to throw us off course,” said Tim Gore, Head of Policy for Oxfam's GROW campaign.

 

“Leaders listening to the latest findings from climate scientists this week must remember that a hot world is a hungry world. They must take urgent action to slash emissions and direct more resources to building a sustainable food system.” — TJD, GMA News