Reports, Environment

Climate Change & Food Systems

Assessing Impacts and Opportunities

Discussions with leading food and agriculture experts who work on climate change informed the development of this report. It explores the complex relationships between climate change and food systems and national/global efforts to mitigate the climate crisis and create food systems that can be resilient and adapt in a changing environment.

Climate Change & Food Systems

Assessing Impacts and Opportunities

Prepared in partnership with the Meridian Institute.
beekeeper-with-the-beehive-authentic-farm-life

Key messages that emerged highlight critical considerations for identifying and evaluating actions:

  1. Food systems have significant, adverse effects on climate change, and climate change impacts food systems in many complex ways.
  2. A food systems perspective is required for transformative change.
  3. Immediate action is possible and needed as a stepping stone to food system transformation.
  4. Equity issues should be central to creating fair, sustainable, and resilient food systems.
  5. Actions need to consider local, Indigenous, and practitioner knowledge.
  6. More peer-reviewed, systems-level information and research is urgently required.
  7. More research on the impacts of food system interventions is needed, in particular in low- and middle-income economies.
  8. New approaches and decision-support tools are required.
  9. Food system transformations require the engagement of a broad range of stakeholders.
  10. Governance and institutional innovations are required for system transformation.

Developed in partnership