A New Era for Climate Change and Food Security?
4 May 2021 - With the United States, under the new administration, re-joining the Paris Agreement and President Biden’s convening the Leaders Summit on Climate, is a new era for climate change and food security in sight? The webinar, co-hosted by FAO North America and the CSIS Global Food Security Program, sought to answer this question through a discussion moderated by Caitlin Welsh, Director of the CSIS Global Food Security Program. The webinar featured high-level speakers from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Bayer.
In his opening remarks, Vimlendra Sharan, Director of FAO North America, underlined the importance of the Leaders’ Summit on Climate in driving the climate agenda forward and the need for financial backing for commitments towards the Paris Agreement. “Climate change is a huge threat multiplier for the hungry and undernourished of the world,” said Sharan. “Extreme weather-related disasters are increasing and they are having major impacts on crop production and productivity, while high CO2 emissions, in turn, impact crop nutrition.”
Ann Vaughan, Senior Advisor for Climate Change in the Bureau of Resilience and Food Security at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided the keynote address. Vaughan highlighted that the “U.S. is again exercising global leadership on climate change and that opens up a whole new era of possibilities and we can build off a very strong foundation for numerous U.S. government efforts like Feed the Future, Water for the World, U.S. programming in resilience adaptation, natural climate solutions, biodiversity and land, and resource governance. She added, “these efforts are advancing food security and nutrition - feeding a growing number of people on a hotter planet.”
Zitouni Ould-Dada, Deputy Director of FAO’s Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Environment, echoed the importance of the U.S. leadership to advance the climate change negotiations and revive energy for the Summit and the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26) amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “We need to raise our ambition and actions to meet the global goal of staying below 2 degrees Celsius (C) and, ideally, 1.5 degrees C. At the moment, if we put all the effort from everyone around the world, they take us just a third of the way towards reaching this objective,” emphasized Ould-Dada.
“We better make it a different era,” stressed Helga Flores-Trejo, Vice President of Global Public Affairs International Organization at Bayer. She noted that 2021 is a decisive year for taking action on climate change and for showing how agriculture can be part of the solution. She shared examples of Bayer’s work towards building resilience by developing short stature corn that is more tolerant to extreme weather patterns and uses less water. Bayer is also carrying out a pilot project in the U.S. and Brazil to support farmers in capturing emissions through climate-smart agricultural practices and digital solutions. Bayer plans to purchase credits for the sequestered carbon at transparent prices, therefore providing farmers with additional streams of revenue.
The session was followed by a lively Q & A session with the speakers and the audience. It highlighted the urgent need for global leaders to accelerate and scale up climate actions, in addition to showcasing the impact that climate change has on food security and the opportunities for addressing climate change through agriculture and nature-based solutions.