This week, an independent global commission of senior scientists and
high-level government advisers will announce via an audio press
briefing the immediate and simultaneous action steps necessary to
confront the threats to food security brought on by climate change,
rising populations, chronic poverty and volatile markets.
The recommendations—a result of a rigorous 11-month process by the
Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change—will be
announced ahead of pivotal policy meetings such as the upcoming UNFCCC
COP17 in Durban, South Africa and next year’s Rio+20 conference.
The Commissioners—eminent scientists with a wide range of scientific
backgrounds in agriculture, climate, ecology, economics, trade and
nutrition/health—hail from Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, China,
Ethiopia, France, India, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, the United
Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam; the Commission is chaired by
Sir John Beddington from the UK.
Convened in February 2011 by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate
Change, Agriculture and Food Security, the independent Commission is
charged with building evidence-based consensus on a clear set of
interventions across the entire food system, from production and trade
to nutrition, food waste, and finance.
WHO:
Dr Bruce Campbell, Director, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change,
Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)
Prof Sir John Beddington, UK, Chair, Commission on Sustainable
Agriculture and Climate Change (CSACC)
Background
The action plan to be discussed on the audio press briefing offers a
concise summary of the Commission’s recommendations. A central concern
of the Commission is that extreme weather events, such as prolonged
high temperatures and severe droughts and floods, are becoming more
frequent, bringing with them a host of economic, humanitarian and
ecological challenges related to food security.
Right now, drought in the Horn of Africa has helped precipitate one of
the continent’s worst food-related humanitarian disasters. Meanwhile,
the sharp rise in food prices over the last year—blamed in part on
extreme weather in the breadbaskets of Russia, Australia and China—has
pushed millions of people into extreme poverty and contributed to
political instability around the world.
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