Climate change poses threat to food security in South Asia: Research (Daily Observer) 

Daily Observer published an article on the 2022 Global Food Policy Report‘s latest findings. The report highlighted that climate change threatens to impact over 750 million people in South Asia through climate hazards, primarily floods and droughts. The report notes that food systems are impacted by climate change, and it plays an equally critical causal role. Globally, food systems, contribute more than one-third of the total greenhouse emissions. About one-fifth of total emissions come specifically from agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU). Investing in food systems transformation could thus result in stabilizing the climate in the future. “There are several promising innovations that can be applied to adaptation but with more warming adaptation will become less effective. Eventually, we will all want a stabilized climate,” said Channing Arndt, Director of IFPRI’s Environment and Production Technology Division. “The global food sector will likely have to become not just zero emissions but a net sink to offset positive emissions elsewhere. These are the big challenges that we need to address over the next 30 years.” “Climate risks in South Asia are amplified by existing vulnerabilities, which have been further compounded by the impacts of Covid-19. It has led to a reduction in national income, overstretched social safety net programs, and disrupted livelihoods of millions of smallholders,” said Shahidur Rashid, Director of South Asia, IFPRI. “The COVID-19 along with the climate change will make it extremely difficult for the region to achieve the SDG goals of zero hunger by 2030.”