Key messages:

• Climate change and malnutrition are two of the greatest challenges facing humanity today.
• A common set of risks and vulnerabilities across people and societies means that climate change is disproportionately impacting those who are already most vulnerable to malnutrition, including adolescent girls and women.
• Responding to climate change and malnutrition reveals a range of areas where the two interact and where addressing one can have positive impacts on the other.
• For example, within agrifood systems, the interplay of climate and malnutrition goes beyond solely considering climate’s impact on food quantity, revealing several additional influences of climate change (such as reduced nutrient levels in foods).
• Thus, identifying such areas of interplay between climate change and malnutrition highlights important opportunities for integrated action (e.g. promoting healthy diets also helps protect biodiversity).
• Evidence shows that looking closely at systems that impact nutrition can provide important guidance for responding jointly to climate change and malnutrition, in ways that go beyond only looking at impacts on agrifood systems.
• Four key systems linking climate and nutrition are: agrifood, water, social protection, and health.
• Across all systems, there are many options for jointly addressing both climate and nutrition. Efforts should focus on scaling these responses, while generating more evidence to identify ways to achieve maximum impact.
• Responding to climate change and malnutrition with integrated action provides one solution to two of our biggest barriers to sustainable development.
• Taking action across these four systems to address climate- and nutrition-related challenges will help reduce overall gender inequities, improve livelihoods and access to water and sanitation for women, and boost social protection and health services for women.

AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS

WATER SYSTEMS

SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS

HEALTH SYSTEMS