Sustainable Development Goal 2 under the 2030 Agenda aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
“Climate change is a fundamental threat to the Sustainable Development Goal 2 that aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition,” said José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Climate change undermines progress made towards zero hunger and climate variability raises the risk of disruptions to food supply and distribution. “To achieve SDG2 and effectively respond to climate change, we require a transformation of our agriculture sectors and food systems,” he added.
According to FAO’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 report, hunger has grown for the first time in over a decade, mainly due to conflicts and climate change. An estimated 815 million people are now hungry.
Yet climate change brings more extreme weather events, land degradation and desertification, water scarcity, rising sea levels, and shifting climates – hampering efforts to feed the planet.
Thomas Pesquet, an astronaut with the European Space Agency who finished a six-month stint on the International Space Station this year, shared his views on the potential of technology to address the problem.
In the last decades, satellite imagery has greatly enhanced our understanding of flows and stocks of carbon and nitrogen, and is a key element in devising solutions at all scales. “Solutions are always local, but tools can be global,” Pesquet said.
Organized by FAO and its partners, the event brought together key people from governments, the private sector and civil society. They looked at ways to tackle climate change (SDG13), hunger (SDG2) and poverty (SDG1) in a coordinated manner, including through sustainable agriculture, and practices that provide multiple benefits.
The meeting highlighted practical ideas to reduce emissions from agriculture and the role of improved practices that reduce emission intensity while raising productivity. For the livestock sector, FAO estimates that emissions could be reduced by about 30 percent with the adoption of best practices.
Photo: CGIAR
