Four ways to enhance global food security and end hunger

Decades of progress on reducing food insecurity are being reversed. & The number of undernourished people is rising again, and in Africa alone, 310 million people are projected to be chronically hungry by 2030 if urgent action is not taken. Worse, a host of factors threatens to push the world’s food systems toward collapse. Dangerous climate tipping points are approaching faster than predicted, and tens of millions of people are suffering from a cost-of-living crisis, ongoing global conflicts, biodiversity loss, and the continuing effects of COVID-19.

There is still time to put the global food system on a fairer, more sustainable, and more resilient path, but the window is closing quickly. Fortunately, the Egyptian government has placed food and nutrition center stage at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, which means the issue will get more attention than it has received at any previous COP. The World Leaders Summit at the outset of the conference focused on the food security crisis, and the Food Systems Pavilion (another COP first) has ensured that food and agriculture remain high on the agenda throughout the two-week event.

Agriculture alone is responsible for about one-third of global greenhouse-gas emissions and is the primary driver of biodiversity loss. It is also linked to 92% of the global water footprint, because the sector is the largest user and polluter of freshwater. Perversely, even as the number of people facing acute food insecurity rises, one-third of all food produced globally is either lost or wasted.

Discussions about the nexus of food systems and climate at COP27 should focus on four priority areas. The first is political leadership. On November 7-8, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi convened heads of state and government to discuss the global food security crisis and the world’s response to it. Political, business, and philanthropic leaders thus had a rare opportunity to come forward with major commitments and clear roadmaps for reforming food systems, emphasizing not only financing but also support for smallholder farmers and adoption of digital technologies in agriculture.

The second priority is to close the significant and unjust global climate financing gap, which reflects a failure by many countries in the Global North to meet their past commitments. African countries have rightly called for a major increase in financing for climate adaptation. The international community must meet this request head-on and at the scale required. Only 3% of current global climate finance is targeted at agriculture and land use. Far more is needed to ensure sustainable food production, which in turn would bring benefits to billions of people, as well as to the climate and other species.

Naoko Ishii is a professor at the University of Tokyo. Joshua Omonuk, a climate justice activist, is an ambassador of the Food and Land Use Coalition.