Poverty, inequality and food insecurity
Read this text then watch the video above.
Climate-change is projected to slow down economic growth and exacerbate poverty in low income countries and some middle income countries. Water stress, population growth and other deprivations may force poor people in urban areas in low-income countries and lower middle-income countries to slip from transient to chronic poverty (IPCC Chapter 13). Poverty and malnutrition would also arise from food price increases that may be precipitated by climate change.
Rapid urbanization has led to the growth of large cities and extreme weather events are particularly severe for vulnerable communities living in slums or informal settlements, and especially women, children and the elderly. Such risks have widespread negative impacts on people and their health, livelihoods and assets (IPCC Chapter 8).
All aspects of food security are potentially affected by climate change, including food access, utilization, and price stability. Changes in the distribution of weeds, agricultural pests and diseases are also expected under climate change this century, though – as with floods and droughts – their extent is difficult to forecast accurately. Adverse effects of climate change on crop and food production are already evident in several regions of the world. Several cases of rapid food and cereal price increases associated with extreme weather in key food-growing regions, such as Russia and the USA, have been observed in recent years (IPCC Chapter 7).
Climate change is expected to increase the inter-annual variability of crop yields in many regions (medium confidence), with negative economic and health implications, especially for the world’s poor. Local temperature increases in excess of about 1 degree C – far below the temperature range likely by the end of this century – are projected to have negative effects on yields for the major crops (wheat, rice and maize) in both tropical and temperate regions (IPCC Chapter 7). The production of coarse grains in Africa may be reduced by 17-22% due to climate change in the near-term future.
Climate change is also affecting the abundance and distribution of harvested aquatic species, both freshwater and marine, and aquaculture production systems in different parts of the world. With approximately a billion people reliant on fish as their primary source of animal protein, this could have severely negative impacts on nutrition, particularly in coastal regions (IPCC Chapter 7).
Without adequate adaptation, climate change by 2050 would increase the number of undernourished children under the age of 5 by 20-25 million (IPCC Chapter 7). Undernutrition is important for health not only because it increases susceptibility to infectious diseases and is already an important contributor to child mortality worldwide, but also increases stunting, anaemia and impaired cognitive development, which could increase dramatically without action to curb emissions (IPCC Chapter 13).
This video discusses some of the ways in which a warming climate will affect poor and vulnerable populations. It can making some areas uninhabitable or prone to natural disasters, undermine livelihoods, breaking down social solidarity, and precipitate population displacement.
After the video move on to the discussion.
References:
For suggestions for further reading, please see the ‘See Also’ section at the end of this page.
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