14 May 2008: Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, addressed the Ministerial Roundtable on Inter-linkages among the Thematic Issues, Including Adaptation to Climate Change, at the sixteenth session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development held from 5-16 May 2008 in New York, US. During the 14 May discussion he asked, “if we agree that climate change is impacting, and will further impact, agricultural production, what are we doing in terms of adaptation?”

In response, he emphasized that, while increased investment and public spending, assistance to smallholder farmers, market access for agricultural products from developing countries and crop varieties that are more adaptable to drought and require less fertilizer or pesticides are needed, “the key to long-term food security lies in implementing an integrated, multi-pronged, and coherent strategy.”[Under-Secretary-General for ESA’s statement]