Today’s food and land use systems cost $12 trillion a year in damage to people and the planet. We are living in a broken and unequal food system. Three billion people can’t afford a healthy diet, more than two billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, and a third of greenhouse gasses are produced by our food systems.
This is a system that is full of contradictions: 462 million people are underweight, while two billion are overweight. We are facing a triple burden of malnutrition. We rely on nature and biodiversity to produce nutritious food, yet paradoxically, the global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss globally. Over the past 50 years, the conversion of natural ecosystems for crop production or pasture has been the principal cause of habitat loss, in turn reducing biodiversity. We require urgent reform of food systems, enabling a just transition to healthy, sustainable and nutritious diets will overcome these challenges and deliver climate action.
This day will tackle the why, what and how, moving from problem statements to sharing solutions and what needs to happen to scale these up and drive positive tipping points. It will discuss the role of climate policy; food loss and waste; indigenous, underutilized, neglected and aquatic foods; shifting dietary patterns; and climate finance.
Previous COPs have missed the critical nature of the impact of climate on delivering sustainable, healthy and nutritious diets and vice versa. A just nutrition transition must be at the heart of all decisions coming out of COP – join leaders and changemakers to learn now.