Earlier this month, a United Nations report said more than 161 million people faced hunger last year compared to 2019, many more likely to be suffering from the widespread COVID-19 pandemic. Was connected.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that climate change and conflict are both consequences and drivers of poverty, income inequality and food prices.
Guterres also said at a meeting in Rome that the world’s food system generates a third of all greenhouse gas emissions. The same system is responsible for 80% of the loss of biodiversity, he lamented in a video message. The gathering was called to help prepare for the United Nations Food System Summit to be held in New York in September.
Earlier this month, a United Nations report said more than 161 million people faced hunger last year compared to 2019, many more likely to be suffering from the widespread COVID-19 pandemic. Was connected.
“Poverty, income inequality and the high cost of food keep healthy diets out of reach for nearly 3 billion people,” Guterres said. “Climate change and conflict are both the consequences and drivers of this catastrophe.”
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The International Fund for Agricultural Development called on decision-makers to “redress failures in food systems” that leave millions of people poor and hungry. IFAD is a United Nations agency that aims to help small-scale farming.
IFAD said that food systems must “radically change” to ensure access to affordable and healthy food, where food production “protects the environment and biodiversity, and where the people who produce our food need their labor.” is properly paid for.” It stated that “the needs of the rural people should be at the centre”.
According to a UN report earlier this month, at least 811 million people faced hunger in 2020.
Guterres said the initial work in Rome would help set the tone for action in this decade and for a “equitable and sustainable recovery from COVID-19”. Such efforts carry a substantial monetary price tag.
The chief economist of the Rome-based United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has said an additional $14 billion (about 12 billion euros) would be needed each year by 2030 to remove 100 million people from chronic malnutrition and to achieve the United Nations goal. About three times the amount will be required for this. Zero hunger by 2030.
According to UN estimates, the target will be missed by a margin of about 660 million people, of which about 30 million are likely “connected to the lasting effects of the pandemic.”
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