Conflict
Most people facing hunger and malnutrition in the world today can be found in countries affected by conflict.
Extreme weather events like floods and wildfires destroy homes and crops.
But climate change is also a big cause of hunger and malnutrition around the world. We’re in a climate crisis. This is a humanitarian emergency.
Without change, there will be famine and food crises globally due to the warming climate and biodiversity loss. Extreme weather events will become more frequent and growing seasons will be shorter.
How the climate crisis is worsening food insecurity
Climate change is causing extreme weather events like droughts, floods, wildfires. The world is reaching record high temperatures, seriously impacting how much food is available.
Extreme weather can force people to leave their homes and their livelihoods. Crops can be reduced, destroyed or fail completely. In turn, this leads to a drop in farming and food production. And less food means more hunger.
Climate change and extreme weather
Families live on floating grass islands to survive floods in South Sudan
Countries across the world are experiencing more and more extreme weather leading to climate disasters. Severe drought is a leading cause of undernutrition in more than a third of countries that have seen a rise in hunger levels in the past 15 years.
In the Sahel region of Africa – which includes countries such as Niger, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso – the rainy seasons are becoming more erratic. Droughts are leading to a decrease in food production while floods are causing outbreaks of diseases like cholera.
Climate change is a long term threat to food security and nutrition. By 2050, the risk of hunger and malnutrition could rise by 20% if we fail to reduce and prevent the adverse effects of extreme weather.
