Director-General and astronaut Thomas Pesquet share views on climate and food-system challenges

21 February 2020, Rome – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu met with Thomas Pesquet, a French astronaut who has been an advocate for action on climate change and used his experience of 196 consecutive days on board the International Space Station in 2016 and 2017 to highlight the need for unity on our “one Earth”.

Seen from space, Earth’s challenges are “no longer abstract but a reality,” Pesquet told the Director-General. He also compared the Earth itself to a space station, where efficiency and sustainability matter a lot. Pesquet has contributed to FAO’s outreach campaigns before and he and Qu agreed to continue to work together to promote awareness of FAO’s science-based information on food waste, food systems, the dual problem of hunger and obesity, and climate change.

The Director-General also asked Pesquet, who has a large following on social media and among youth audiences, to advocate forcefully for the reduction and elimination of food waste, as a key to sustainable lifestyles.

Both Qu and Pesquet stressed the need for sustainable lifestyles and healthy diets, and talked about the “grow local and eat local” idea as a way to raise awareness that shortened food chains reduce carbon footprints.

The two also agreed that lowering our ecological footprints, and changing our consumption patterns in light of environmental concerns, is part of the adaptation that climate change requires.