The World Food Programme's press release underscores the long-standing challenges to feeding the the world's hungry people and the increased challenges posed by climate change.
Drawing on recent findings from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and Oxfam, WFP outlines seven facts on the links between climate and hunger.
5 December 2011: On the sidelines of the Durban Climate Change Conference, the World Food Programme (WFP) issued a press release underscoring seven facts on climate change and hunger.
The facts include that: climate change is expected to add another 10-20 percent to the total number of hungry people by the year 2050; by 2050 we can expect 24 million more malnourished children as a result of climate change, and almost half of this increase, 10 million children, will be in sub-Saharan Africa; between 1980 and 2006 the number of climate-related disasters has quadrupled; the number of people affected by climate-related disasters is expected to reach 375 million per year by 2015; in 2010, climate-related extreme events and disasters affected some 300 million people, most often in countries that have little capacity to cope; with climate change, two-thirds of the arable land in Africa could be lost by 2025, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO); and by 2030, climate change could push food prices up by 50-90 percent more than they would otherwise be expected to rise, according to a recent report by Oxfam. [WFP Press Release]