Climate change will worsen the world’s food crisis, the UN forecast today.
Food and global warming are interconnected, said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“They are not competing with each other on the international agenda.”
“It is absolutely right that the food issue is receiving a lot of attention. That is a human crisis that’s out there right now,” Mr De Boer said.
But in the long term, climate change will bring still higher food prices, worsening water problems and more drought. Ignoring the issue “will get you into deeper trouble down the road,” he said.
He said it was uncertain whether the G8 countries meeting next week would firm up the goal adopted a year ago to “consider seriously” halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
But he said it was important to discuss more immediate goals. Knowing what the world’s biggest economies intend to do by 2020 is critical for developing countries and business investors, he said.
“If you look at the signs of investment direction that the private sector is crying out for, that is the issue that is most critical,” he said. He acknowledged, however, he expected no conclusions on emissions goals for 2020.
A panel of UN scientists has said emissions must level off within the next 10-15 years and then start to dramatically decline to avoid a rise in average temperatures that could have catastrophic consequences.
Since the last G8 meeting in Germany, oil prices have doubled to surpass $140 dollars a barrel, and Mr de Boer said soaring prices were already having an effect on climate issues.
On the plus side, people were driving less, and renewable energy was winning more attention. For the first time, the International Energy Agency lowered its forecast for oil demand, he said.
At the same time, “very poor people who spend the bulk of their income on survival are not happy to see energy prices go up,” he said.
Mr De Boer welcomed the move by the board of the World Bank on Tuesday formally launching two special investment funds for climate change that could raise up to $10 billion.
The funds have been sharply criticised by some environmentalists who distrust the bank’s environmental record and say the money should be put in the hands of the UN.
“The Bank’s new climate funds will undermine UN climate talks, increase debt and pay polluters,” said the Friends of the Earth.
But De Boer said the bank’s funds had a clause that will phase them out when a new financial structure is adopted in a climate change treaty. That accord should be negotiated by the end of next year.
- AP