An opportunity to strengthen vulnerable communities’ resilience 

The need to act to combat climate change has never been so obvious. In 2023, the climate emergency was one of the main factors behind growing world hunger. Climate shocks destroy lives, crops and livelihoods and sap populations’ capacity to feed themselves. Almost three quarters of the countries with the highest levels of malnutrition are also on the list of the 25 countries most vulnerable to climate change.  

Leaders from all over the world will be in Baku (Azerbaijan) for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) from 11 to 22 November. As a humanitarian and development organisation that attacks both the causes and the effects of hunger and malnutrition, we call on the political and economic leaders present at COP29 to take political and financial measures proportionate to the gravity of the climate emergency, to guarantee a sustainable transformation of food systems and to make vulnerable populations more resilient.   

What is the link between the climate emergency and world hunger?  

The climate crisis can take numerous forms: temperature change, more frequent and more severe droughts and floods, rapid soil erosion, and many more. All of these disturbances have an impact on populations’ access to a sufficient healthy diet. Crops are directly affected, which increases the impact of plant diseases. The nutritional quality of crops is also altered: for example, the amount of protein or essential minerals like zinc and iron in wheat and legumes is reduced. All of this has a negative effect on food security, and therefore on children’s development and health in the long term. For instance, higher temperatures are associated with a decrease in diet diversity among children, thus increasing malnutrition rates.  

Without immediate, effective action, the situation will get worse. Up to 183 million more people could be at risk of famine by the year 2050.  

Who is impacted the most by the climate emergency and its consequences?   

The climate crisis is not neutral from a gender perspective. It hits women, girls and marginalised populations hardest, thus exacerbating existing inequalities and threatening their health, security and livelihoods.   

Women, who are often in charge of providing food, water and fuel for their family, have less access to the natural resources needed to adapt to the impacts of climate change. In the agricultural sector, in which many of them work, their jobs are under particular threat. Furthermore, climate change makes conflicts worse and exposes women to more gender-based violence, including sexual violence, trafficking and forced marriage. The fight against the climate crisis, hunger and malnutrition must therefore include women and marginalised groups in any decision-making processes. 

What are the opportunities for action at COP29?   

Action contre la Faim calls on governments to strengthen communities’ resilience to climate shocks and to support climate action – even in fragile contexts and conflict zones – to fight against the food and nutritional crisis:   

1. Paying climate debt  : the climate crisis and its impacts have a disproportionate effect on the communities that have contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, climate finance has always been far from sufficient. With a view to ensuring climate justice, countries of the North must pay their climate debt and provide realistic necessary funding to fulfil needs.  They must set an ambitious public funding goal of at least 1 trillion dollars per year, in the form of donations first and foremost.   
2. Making climate finance accessible on a local level : in order to take climate action that is impactful on a local level and fosters gender equality, COP29 must be used as a platform for removing barriers to climate finance for the most affected people. Communities and local civil society organisations, including grassroots feminist movements and community organisations, are best placed to define how to strengthen their own resilience. 
3. Promoting adaptation on a local level : massive funding for climate crisis adaptation is essential – in the form of donations, rather than loans – in order to support preventive or pre-emptive action that focuses on food security and nutrition, water, hygiene, sanitation and access to quality health care, including nutrition services.    
4. Avoiding false solutions  : any ‘solution’ that has a negative impact on ecosystems, health, human rights or inequalities is unacceptable, even if it emits less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. Certain technological solutions promoted by industrial agriculture will merely exacerbate dependence on external inputs, which will lead to an increase in poverty among small-scale farmers. Action contre la Faim advocates for a transformation of food systems rooted in fairness, solidarity and sustainability through small-scale farming.