On January 15th, Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, chaired a session of the two day conference “Feeding the World in 2050: A Policy Symposium” held in University College Dublin.
On January 15th, Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, chaired a session of the two day conference “Feeding the World in 2050: A Policy Symposium” held in University College Dublin.
Ms. Robinson was Chair of the session “Strategies to reduce the food security risks of production, trade, finance and speculation” – with a keynote address from Professor Joachim von Braun, Centre for Development Research, University of Bonn, Germany.
Professor Von Braun, spoke of the risks to global food security from volatile food prices, sustained population growth, the impact of Climate Change on food production, financial shocks, and political corruption.
The wider symposium focused on the challenge facing policy makers as they attempt to tackle the impact of climate change on world hunger. Currently one sixth of the world’s population are already denied the basic right to food – 870 million people go to bed hungry each night and one child dies every twelve seconds from malnutrition.
Climate change further undermines the realisation of the right to food, as it is one of the key drivers of change affecting the food system and further contributes to rising food prices.
The world population will rise by 50% by the year 2050, to over 9 billion. Most of the population growth will take place in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia – areas which are already vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition.
The impacts of climate change on food and nutrition security is exacerbating existing inequalities and access to resources – especially for women who are primarily responsible for food production and contributing to injustice – those who have done least to cause the climate change problem are already suffering its impacts on one of their most fundamental human rights – the right to food.
In recognising the clear links between climate change, hunger and food security this symposium provided a space and a context for engaging in a shared dialogue that can provide people centred solutions.
Related:
Read more about the work of the Foundation in the area of Food Security and Climate Change