Without rapid changes to agriculture and food systems, the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change will not be met says a new study out today in the journal Science.
The study team, led by ECI's Dr Monika Zurek, also included leading academics Dr Aniek Hebinck from the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT), Erasmus University and Dr Odirilwe Selomane from the Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University. They highlight that food systems are one of the most important contributors to greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions, but they also need to be adapted to cope with climate change impacts. Although many options exist to reduce GHG emissions in the food system, efforts to develop implementable transformation pathways are hampered by a combination of structural challenges such as fragmented decision making, vested interests, and power imbalances in the climate policy and food communities, all of which are compounded by a lack of joint vision.
The study goes on to conclude that new processes and governance arrangements are urgently needed for dealing with potential trade-offs among mitigation options and their food security implications.
- Read the article: Climate change and the urgency to transform food systems, (£) on the Science website