Climate change and food security: risks and responses

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Summary
INTRODUCTION
In spite of the considerable progress made during the last several decades in reducing 
hunger, as of 2015 almost 800 million people are chronically undernourished. An estimated 
161 million children under five years are stunted. At the same time, 500 million people are 
obese. Two billion people lack the essential micronutrients they need to lead healthy lives. 
FAO estimates that, to satisfy the growing demand driven by population growth and dietary 
changes, food production will have to increase by 60 percent by 2050. 
It is not enough to have sufficient food produced globally to meet demand – enough food 
is produced globally now but there are still almost 800 million hungry people – but that 
everybody has access to it, in the right quantity and quality, all the time. 
According to the United Nations, in 2015, there are still 836 million people in the world 
living in extreme poverty (less than USD1.25/day). And according to the International Fund 
for Agricultural Development (IFAD), at least 70 percent of the very poor live in rural 
areas, most of them depending partly (or completely) on agriculture
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for their livelihoods. 
It is estimated that 500 million smallholder farms in the developing world are supporting 
almost 2 billion people, and in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa these small farms produce about
80 percent of the food consumed. 
Climate change threatens to reverse the progress made so far in the fight against hunger and 
malnutrition. As highlighted by the latest assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on 
Climate change (IPCC), climate change augments and intensifies risks to food security for the 
most vulnerable countries and populations. Four out of the eight key risks induced by climate 
change identified by IPCC AR5 have direct consequences for food security:
• Loss of rural livelihoods and income
• Loss of marine and coastal ecosystems, and livelihoods
• Loss of terrestrial and inland water ecosystems, and livelihoods 
• Food insecurity and breakdown of food systems
The earliest and the more impacted are the most vulnerable countries and populations, 
including in arid and semi-arid areas, landlocked countries and small island developing states. 
Climate change will also have broader impacts through effects on trade flows, food markets 
and price stability and could introduce new risks for human health. Greatly expanded efforts 
to respond to climate change are needed immediately to safeguard the capacity of food systems 
to ensure global good security.
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Agriculture is to be understood here in its broad sense, covering crops and livestock production as well as forestry, 
fisheries and aquaculture.
“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to 
sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences 
for an active and healthy life” (World Food Summit, 1996). This definition gives rise to 
four dimensions of food security: availability of food, accessibility (economically and 
physically), utilization (the way it is used and assimilated by the human body) and stability 
of these three dimensions.

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CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD SECURITY: RISKS AND RESPONSES