Climate variability and climate extremes potentially have a large impact on food systems from the production to the consumption of food. Informed decisions require a good knowledge of the impacts of climate extremes and climate variability on the pattern of food production, food demand, as well as on food security and nutrition. Trade-offs may exist between several objectives namely between economic, public health and environment objectives. 

This section contains publications depicting the current knowledge about the impact of climates extremes on agriculture, food insecurity and nutrition.

Counting People Exposed to, Vulnerable to, or at High Risk From Climate Shocks

World Bank - 2023

This paper presents a methodology to estimate the number of people who are at high risk from extreme weather events, defined as the people who are exposed to these events and highly vulnerable to them. In Sub-Saharan Africa,  the number of people at high risk has increased between 2010 and 2019.

Knowledge Review - Climate-Smart Agriculture in developing countries: definition - practices – adoption

EC - 2023

The Knowledge contains in this knowledge review on CSA has been extracted, organised, and synthesized from a selection of 60 recent publications on the subject. The focus is on smallholder agriculture in developing countries. It provides an overview about CSA technologies and practices, the factors influencing its adoption, best practices and policy recommendations.

ADAPT - Policy Innovations to Unlock Climate Finance for Resilient Food Systems in Africa

2022

Supporting adaptation in Africa’s food system has become an economic imperative. This 11th report by the Malabo Montpellier Panel explores a wide range of innovative financing tools and mechanisms to mobilize additional finance from both the public and the private sectors to build resilience to climate change.

Climate Vulnerability Monitor Third Edition: A Planet on Fire

2022

The Climate Vulnerability Monitor is an independent global assessment of the impacts of human-induced climate change in the 21st century. Changes in crop production and yields affect both food supply and income for about 600 million farms globally, 90% of which are operated by smallholder and subsistence farmers.

Hunger in a Heating World: How the climate crisis is fuelling hunger in an already hungry world

OXFAM - 2022

Climate change is fuelling hunger for millions of people around the world. Extreme weather events have increased five-fold over the past 50 years , destroying homes, decimating livelihoods, fuelling conflict and displacement, and deepening inequality. Oxfam has looked at 10 of the worst climate hotspots in the world which had the highest number of UN appeals related to major weather extremes since 2000: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Somalia and Zimbabwe.

African Food Systems: The Importance of Climate Adaptation

World Bank - 2022

This infographic from World Bank displays side by side the climate adaptation and inaction costs for food systems in Africa.

IFPRI 2022 Global food policy report: Climate change and food systems

IFPRI - 2022

The report focuses on innovations and policy approaches that show potential to address climate change in food systems while also increasing productivity, improving diets, and advancing inclusion of vulnerable groups. These range from new crop varieties, clean energy sources, and digital technologies to trade reforms, landscape governance, and social protection programs.

IPCC – Sixth Assessment Report

IPCC - 2022

The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) comprises three Working Group contributions: Working Group I (the physical science basis – released on 9/08/21), Working Group II (impacts, adaptation and vulnerability – released on 28/02/2022) and Working Group III (mitigation – released on 4/04/2022) and a Synthesis Report (released on March 2023). Looking more specifically on the impact of climate change on food security in developing, the synthesis report highlights with high confidence:

• Increasing weather and climate extreme events have exposed millions of people to acute food insecurity and reduced water security, with the largest adverse impacts observed in many poor and developing countries. Between 2010 and 2020, human mortality from floods, droughts and storms was 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions, compared to regions with very low vulnerability.
• Current global financial flows for adaptation are insufficient for, and constrain implementation of adaptation options, especially in developing countries.
• Examples of effective adaptation options include: cultivar improvements, on-farm water management and storage, soil moisture conservation, irrigation, agroforestry, community-based adaptation, farm and landscape level diversification in agriculture, sustainable land management approaches, use of agroecological principles and practices and other approaches that work with natural processes.
• Shifting to sustainable healthy diets and reducing food loss/waste - and sustainable agricultural intensification can reduce ecosystem conversion, and methane and nitrous oxide emissions, and free up land for reforestation and ecosystem restoration.

The impact of disasters and crises on agriculture and food security

FAO - 2021

This report constitutes a further step towards bridging persistent knowledge gaps and fostering a better understanding of how agriculture is affected by disasters. Extreme events such as drought, floods, storms, tsunamis, wildfires, pest and disease outbreaks exert a heavy toll on agriculture and all its sectors: crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021 (SOFI)

FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, WHO - 2021

The reversal in the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) trends in 2014 and continuous increase are largely attributed to countries affected by conflict, climate extremes and economic downturns (now exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic), and to countries with high income inequality. Between 2017 and 2019, the PoU increased by 4 percent in countries affected by one or more of these major drivers while it decreased by 3 percent in countries not affected by them.

Climate Change and Food Systems

2021

This policy brief – prepared in the framework of the UNFSS 2021 - highlights nine actions points for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the food systems. The policy brief shows that numerous practices, technologies, knowledge and social capital already exist for climate action in the food systems and are currently being applied at local scales around the world, even if not at sufficient levels. Some other solutions require research and development investments now to address the longer-term challenges of climate change on food systems.