NINE WAYS TO IMPROVE NUTRITION AND

TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE

December 14, 2015 How should we deal with the serious threat climate change
poses to nutrition and food security? Our panel of experts have their say:
1. Focus on sustainable diets
From a consumption perspective weve been working for several years on a project
called LiveWell through which weve shown that diets that are good for health are also
good for the environment and are affordable. In the developed world, without wanting to
simplify things too much, this means reducing meat consumption and eating more plant
based foods. Were starting to see this message gain more traction. In the UK, we have
a plant-based coalition of corporate, NGO and academic partners led by Alpro and
supported by WWF that aims to raise awareness of sustainable diets and the benefits of
plant-based eating. Nick Hughes, food sustainability advisor, WWF-UK, London, UK.
2. Integrate climate change and nutrition policies
Climate change and nutrition need to have an aligned agenda. We know crop prices will
increase (it has been predicted that climate change will result in additional prices
increase of 5 -25% for important agriculture crops like maize, wheat and soybeans), we
also know that food quality is and will continue to be affected, so collaboration is called
for to take a number of factors more seriously such as seasonality, effects of diet on
greenhouse emissions, and rapid urbanization (to name a mere few). While climate
change needs to be built into national policies on the global stage, we need to work in
countries and lead on the formation of nutrition alliances to identify opportunities for
action. Dominic Schofield, director, GAIN Canada, Ottawa, Canada.
3. Empower women
Small scale farmers produce about 80% of the food in Africa and the majority of small
scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are women. Unfortunately women are most
affected by climate change damage. Women farmers often use agro-ecological type of
farming which involve climate-smart practices. So empowerment of women should be
seen as one intervention to address climate change. Anna Lartey, director of nutrition,
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.
4. Listen to indigenous communities
Here at IFAD we believe its also important to remember the value of indigenous
knowledge related to climate change adaptation. This includes identification of underutilized varieties (often now known only by elderly members of indigenous communities)
as well as varieties that have higher micronutrient values and that, with change in
climate, have the potential to be grown at higher altitudes. Sen Kennedy, senior
technical specialist on public health and nutrition, International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD), Rome, Italy.
5. Fix our broken food systems
One third of food is lost/wasted before it makes it to the table. I think we do talk about
these issues and they are reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals, but I think
we have to stop talking about them as separate issues. Quite frankly, if we are going to
build resilient food systems that meet food and nutrition needs, we must fix what is
currently broken and then fill the gap, versus simply saying we have to produce more to
feed more across the board. The latter is a recipe for disaster. Nabeeha M. Kazi,

president and CEO of Humanitas Global and chair of the Community for Zero Hunger,
Washington, DC.
6. Dont forget the economic case
We have to make the economic case. Disasters cost the global economy $38 trillion
between 1980 and 2012. Some 87% of these reported disasters (18,200 events), 74%
of losses (US$2,800 billion) and 61% of lives lost (1.4 million in total) were caused by
weather extremes.
Compare that with WFPs Cost of Hunger study results which show that 1 dollar
invested in nutrition yields 16 times the benefit. With that return on investment, its clear
that nutrition and food security need to be priority investment areas for climate finance.
Richard Choularton, chief, climate and disaster risk reduction programmes, World Food
Programme (WFP), Stowe, USA.
7. Ensure the Paris Agreement accelerates progress
The Paris Agreement needs to accelerate efforts to bolster local, national and global
capacity to manage the impacts of climate extremes and slow on-set climate change
through comprehensive risk management approaches. This includes strengthening local
and national disaster management capacities to prepare for, respond to, and recover
from climate disasters. Richard Choularton, chief, climate and disaster risk reduction
programmes, World Food Programme (WFP), Stowe, USA.
8. We need to get better at producing and sharing food
We need to stop calling all the time for yield increase. We know that sustainable agrimodels like agro-ecology are able to feed the world. Agro-ecology maintained by two
billion farmers is based on local knowledge and know-hows and land. It is one of the
most reliable solutions to ensure food and nutrition security for all. It also contributes to
improving smallholders farmers yield and income, developing a fossil-free, independent
and sustainable agriculture, improving farmers resilience to climate change and
meeting the challenges of climate adaptation and mitigation. Peggy Pascal, food
security advocacy officer, Action Against Hunger, Paris, France.
9. Encourage more collaboration
Collaboration is certainly necessary, but there is not enough of it. There seems to be
increasing acknowledgement and dialogue among the academic and technical
communities about the interplay between climate change, food security, nutrition and
gender, but this is less evident on the ground in programmatic design. I think that much
of what is happening is reactive.

CAN THE PARIS AGREEMENT PROTECT

POOR FARMERS FROM CLIMATE CHANGE
BARCELONA (Dec. 14, 2015) Purity Gachanga is one small-scale farmer who is
beating climate change. On her several acres of land in Embu North district in central
Kenya, she keeps cows and goats that produce milk, grows trees for fodder, and
collects water to irrigate her food crops in a pond filled with tilapia fish.
Since she started out in the 1970s, she has overcome increasingly erratic rainfall by
using new technologies and trying out different crops and trees. She even turns her
animal manure into biogas, harnessing methane for clean energy.
And she doesnt stay quiet about it. She hosts groups of other Kenyan farmers and
international researchers on her farm to show them the effectiveness of a mixed crop,
livestock and tree farming system in the face of worsening climate pressures.
We try to help ourselves so that climate change will not affect us, she told a discussion
about supporting farmers on the sidelines of the recent climate change talks in Paris.
It is a strategy that has worked well for her over the years, she has been able to build
a stone house for her family of 11 children, connected to power and water supplies.
Farmers need to get enough crops to sustain their family and reduce poverty, and
educate their children, she said.
But millions of others are struggling to maintain their yields amid crop damage from
severe droughts or flash floods, with no assets in reserve to help them bounce back
from a crisis.
The International Food Policy Research Institute released a study in Paris showing that
climate change is a threat to agricultural growth, affecting productivity, prices and a new
global goal to end hunger by 2030.
In the Philippines, for instance, climate change is projected to cut per-capita
consumption of cereals by 24 percent and fruits and vegetables by 13 percent,
increasing the number of people at risk of hunger by 1.4 million in 2030 and 2.5 million
by 2050, the institute said.
First for Food Security
Given that, it is surprising the world agriculture does not appear once in the text of the
new global agreement to tackle climate change adopted in Paris on Saturday.
A key reason for this is that developing nations long resisted including agriculture in the
climate negotiations, fearing efforts to feed their people would be compromised by
pressure to reduce planet-warming emissions from farms.
A 2015 study from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that
emissions from agriculture are growing, accounting for around 11 percent of the global
total in 2010.
The Paris climate agreement refers only indirectly to agriculture, in terms of making sure
people have enough to eat.
Its non-binding introduction recognizes the fundamental priority of safeguarding food
security and ending hunger, and the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems
to the adverse impacts of climate change.

The binding part of the deal states that boosting the worlds ability to adapt to those
impacts and foster climate resilience and low-emissions development should be done
in a manner that does not threaten food production.
Yet, despite the politics that largely excluded agriculture, the FAO welcomed the
agreement, noting that for the first time ever, food security features in a global climate
change accord.
This is a game changer for the 800 million people still suffering from chronic hunger,
and for 80 percent of the worlds poor who live in rural areas and earn income and
feed their families from agriculture, FAO Director-General Jos Graziano da Silva
said in a statement after the deal was reached.
By including food security, the international community fully acknowledges that urgent
attention is needed to preserve the well-being and future of those who are on the
frontline of climate change threats, he added.
Paying for Plans
Others in the agricultural research community and agencies working with small farmers
highlighted the widespread inclusion of agricultural policies in the nearly 190 national
action plans submitted to the United Nations as a basis for the climate deal.
Analysis by the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food
Security (CCAFS) shows agriculture is discussed in 80 percent of those plans, a signal
that addressing agriculture in the context of climate change is a priority.
Kanayo F. Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD), said this was a good springboard for approaching top decision makers in
developing countries about protecting their farmers from climate change.
In a report released in Paris, IFAD said technical interventions like hardier seeds and
accurate weather forecasts are not enough to help small farmers cope, and must be
backed up by national strategies, laws and budgets.
One major barrier to helping small-scale farmers adapt to extreme weather and reduce
emissions from their activities is insufficient money for research and action on the
ground, experts noted.
The CCAFS study of national climate plans found the 48 least developed countries
alone will need funding of $5 billion per year $3 billion for adaptation and $2 billion for
reducing farm emissions.
That sum is much higher than current commitments to climate funds for agriculture, and
at least 10 percent more per year than multilateral climate funds spent on agricultural
projects in the last decade, it said.
Climate finance needs to include agriculture as a key sector, and support countries to
implement the plans they have laid out, said CCAFS director Bruce Campbell.

MORE HEAT WAVES PREDICTED IN NEXT

20 YEARS
December 14, 2015 Scientists have developed a new method to more accurately
measure and predict heat waves, and the results are frightening.
More Heat Waves to Come
The researchers have shown that heat waves are likely to increase both in severity and
number during the next two decades.
Even if global mean temperatures dont increase too much, well see more extreme
heat events. These will be hotter, longer, and more frequent, explains Simone Russo
from the European Commission Joint Research Center, Ispra, Italy.
The new metric is called the Heat Wave Magnitude Index daily (HWMId). It takes into
account both the duration and the intensity of the heat wave for more accurate
measurement and reporting. For example, we now know that a little-studied heat wave
in Finland in 1972 had the same magnitude of the 2003 European heat wave that is
considered the second strongest heat wave since 1950.
The researchers also considered the 2015 warm weather, and compared it with the top
10 European heat waves since 1950. The 2015 summer heat wave had a lower
magnitude than the extreme heat event of 2003, but it was comparable to other heat
waves.
The largest anomalies [higher than average temperature] and duration were recorded
in Switzerland in July, and Germany in August, adds Russo.
Next, Russo and his colleagues plan to investigate the wider implications of heat waves
on global health, agriculture, and economics. However, it looks as though scorching
heat waves can be expected every summer for the foreseeable future.
These findings were published on November 27, 2015, in the journal Environmental
Research Letters.

PH WELCOMES HISTORIC PARIS

AGREEMENT
MANILA, Philippines (Dec. 13, 2015) The Philippines welcomes the Paris Agreement
and pledges to fulfill its intended nationally determined contribution (INDC), committing
to reduce greenhouse emissions conditionally by 70% by 2030.
Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Sonny Coloma Jr
said on dzRB Sunday, December 13, this pledge is in solidarity with other nations that
will provide support in terms of finance, technology and capacity building.
He added that the Philippine government will continually engage our people in the spirit
of bayanihan to work together in building disaster-resilient communities.
The Paris Agreement was adopted on December 12, 2015 by negotiators from 195
parties. The historic global climate pact aims to keep global temperature rise to below 2
degrees Celsius and to help avert a planet-wide catastrophe.
The Philippine delegation led by Climate Change Commissioner Emmanuel de Guzman
welcomed the accord and said the Paris Agreement is a significant stride forward.
During the plenary session where countries adopted the pact, De Guzman said that
while the accord may not be as perfect, it is essentially an acceptable one.
We can build on it and make it better over time. We must now focus on its
implementation and on the compliance procedures and will engage in the process, he
said.
At the start of COP21, President Benigno Aquino III called on nations to act and reach
an agreement that allows all voices to be heard and take into consideration the
particular situations of all the nations that have taken this historic step to end decades of
deadlock and take decisive climate change action, Coloma said in his opening
statement.
Among the major points of the Paris accord are the following:
global temperature goal of 1.5 degrees
inclusion of human rights as bedrock principle
emphasis on ecosystem integrity
commitment of support in finance, technology and capacity building for all adaptation
and mitigation efforts
inclusion of a loss and damage article that would ensure the recovery, restoration and
resilience of communities, livelihoods and ecosystems.

NATIONS AGREE ON HISTORIC GLOBAL

CLIMATE PACT
LE BOURGET, France (Dec. 13, 2015) The deal is sealed.
Negotiators from all of the worlds nations have formally adopted a global climate
pact that aims to keep a global temperature rise this century to below 2 degrees
Celsius and help avert a planet-wide disaster.
It is to take effect in 2020.
Ministers and delegates representing 195 groups (194 countries and the European
Union acting as one party) unanimously agreed on the 31-page document, the firstever global agreement on climate change that will have all countries on board.
The universal agreements main aim is to keep a global temperature rise this
century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature
increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, said a
statement from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC).
The 1.5 degree Celsius limit is a significantly safer defense line against the worst
impacts of a changing climate, it added.
At exactly 7:30 pm Central European time (2:30 am Sunday, December 13
Philippine time), French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, acting as the chair of the
2015 United Nations (UN) climate change conference, banged the gavel during a
plenary session at the Le Bourget conference center, signaling the adoption of the
document.
I see the room, I see the reaction is positive, I hear no objection. The Paris climate
accord is adopted, Fabius declared.
Cheers emanated from the people packing the La Seine plenary hall, composed of
ministers, diplomats, and other officials who have worked with nearly no sleep for
the past three nights in the outskirts of the French capital Paris.
The Paris Agreement allows each delegation and group of countries to go back
home with their heads held high. Our collective effort is worth more than the sum of
our individual effort. Our responsibility to history is immense said Fabius.
French President Francois Hollande told the assembled delegates: Youve done it,
reached an ambitious agreement, a binding agreement, a universal agreement.
Never will I be able to express more gratitude to a conference. You can be proud to
stand before your children and grandchildren.
The Philippine delegation called it a sigificant stride in addressing issues that
matter the most to the Philippines.
Various civil society groups praised the deal, but they also stressed that what comes
next is equally important.
The pact is the culmination of more than two decades of negotiations and debates
between countries, particularly between the rich and the poor nations, on how to
best deal with global warming.
The aim is to limit global warming to below 2C (3.6F), with the aim of containing it
below 1.5C (2.7F), above pre-Industrial Revolution levels, by cutting greenhouse
gas emissions.

To reach these ambitious and important goals, appropriate financial flows will be
put in place, thus making stronger action by developing countries and the most
vulnerable possible, in line with their own national objectives, according to the
UNFCCC.
More than half of the delegations earlier signified their intention to adopt the draft
agreement, most notably the G77+China bloc a group of 134 nations mostly from
the developing world, and includes China, India, and most of the oil-producing Gulf
nations that are seen as the biggest possible stumbling blocks to a deal.
The Paris Agreement on climate change is a monumental triumph for people and
planet, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the assembled group.
Here in Paris, we have heeded their voices as was our duty, he said.
When historians look back on this day, they will say that global cooperation to
secure a future safe from climate change took a dramatic new turn here in Paris,
he added.
We have an agreement. It is a good agreement. You should all be proud, Ban
added.
Financing issues
Developing nations had insisted rich countries must shoulder the lions share of
responsibility for tackling climate change as they emitted most of the greenhouse
gases since the Industrial Revolution.
The United States and other rich nations countered that emerging giants must also
do more, arguing developing countries now account for most of current emissions
and thus will be largely responsible for future warming.
On the crucial financing issue, developed countries agreed to muster at least $100
billion (92 billion euros) a year from 2020 to help developing nations.
However, following US objections, it was not included in the legally- binding section
of the deal
Ahead of the talks, most nations submitted voluntary plans to curb greenhouse-gas
emissions from 2020, a process billed as an important platform for success.
But scientists say that, even if the pledges were fully honored, Earth will still be on
track for warming far above safe limits.
In an effort to get countries to scale up their commitments, the agreement will have
five-yearly reviews of their pledges starting from 2023.
Nations most vulnerable to climate change lobbied hard for wording to limit
warming to 1.5C.
Big polluters, such as China, India and oil producing-giant Saudi Arabia, preferred a
ceiling of 2C, which would have enabled them to burn fossil fuels for longer.
Chinas chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua said the pact was not perfect.
However, this does not prevent us from marching historical steps forward, he said.
This indeed is a marvelous act that belongs to our generation and all of us.
Whats next?
The agreement will be kept at the UN in New York and be opened for one year for
signature on 22 April 2016, Mother Earth Day, the UNFCC said.

The agreement will enter into force after 55 countries that account for at least 55%
of global emissions have deposited their instruments of ratification, it added.
The agreement also includes the following details, according to UNFCC:
All countries will submit adaptation communications, in which they may detail their
adaptation priorities, support needs and plans. Developing countries will receive
increased support for adaptation actions and the adequacy of this support will be
assessed.
The existing Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage will be
significantly strengthened.
The agreement includes a robust transparency framework for both action and
support. The framework will provide clarity on countries mitigation and adaptation
actions, as well as the provision of support. At the same time, it recognizes that
Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States have special
circumstances.
The agreement includes a global stocktake starting in 2023 to assess the collective
progress towards the goals of the agreement. The stocktake will be done every five
years.
The agreement includes a compliance mechanism, overseen by a committee of
experts that operates in a non-punitive way.
Nicholas Stern, a former chief economist for the World Bank who has become a
prominent global advocate of climate action, also hailed the deal.
This is a historic moment, not just for us and our world today, but for our children,
our grandchildren and future generations, Stern said.
French scientist Jean Jouzel, who contributes to the UNs Nobel-winning climate
panel, was cautious.
He told Agence France-Presse the 1.5C goal was legitimate for climate-vulnerable
countries but in reality, it was a dream, and certainly too ambitious to reach.
My disappointment is about action before 2020, which would help avert future
warming, Jouzel said. There is really no ambition there at all.