Meat and vegetable oils lead FAO Food Price Index upwards, while cereal prices dip amid record output even as weather weighs in Africa
A strong rice harvest is expected in Madagascar.
ROME, 5 December 2019 (FAO)* — World food prices rose significantly in November, reaching their highest point in more than two years, driven by jumps in the international prices of meat products and vegetable oils.
MILAN, Italy, Dec 4 2019 (IPS)* –– Local knowledge systems rooted in traditional practices and culture passed down generations provide sustainable solutions to food and nutritional insecurity on the back of climate change, a conference heard this week.
(UN News)* — Zimbabwe is facing its worst hunger crisis in a decade with half of the population – 7.7 million people – food insecure, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday [3 December 2019].
WFP/Tatenda Macheka | The World Food Programme says that more than one-third of the rural population in Zimbabwe will be food insecure by October 2019.
4 December 2019 (UN News)* — A record 168 million people worldwide will need help and protection in crises spanning more than 50 countries in 2020, the UN’s emergency relief chief has said, in an appeal for nearly $29 billion in humanitarian aid from donors.
OCHA/Giles Clarke | Displaced children stand in the shredded remains of tents in Abs settlement, Yemen, for internally displaced persons. Located just 40 km from the frontlines, the settlement is regularly damaged by passing sandstorms.
4 December 2019 (UN Environment)* — Soil’s contribution to climate change, through the oxidation of soil carbon, is important, and soils—and thus agriculture—can play a major role in mitigating climate change.
Protecting people’s health from climate change dangers such as heat stress, storms and tsunamis has never been more important, yet most countries are doing too little about it, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday [3 December 2019]. (*).
In its first global review of more than 100 countries, the UN agency found that while around half of them have developed a strategy on the issue, fewer than one in five is spending enough to implement all of their commitments.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 3 2019 (IPS)* – The greatest single climate-induced threat facing the world’s 44 small island developing states (SIDS) is rising sea waters which could obliterate some of the low-lying states, including Maldives, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Palau and Micronesia.
Credit: UNICEF
The Marshall Islands alone, says the UN, has seen more than a third of its population move abroad in the last 15-20 years. Many have moved for work, healthcare and education – but climate change is now threatening those who have chosen to stay.
2 December 2019 (UN News)* — A green economy is “not one to be feared but an opportunity to be embraced”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday,[2 December 2019 in a keynote speech to delegates at the opening of the COP25 UN climate conference in Madrid on Monday .
Mr. Guterres outlined the work programme for what will be a busy two-week event covering multiple aspects of the climate crisis, including capacity-building, deforestation, indigenous peoples, cities, finance, technology, and gender.
3 December 2019 (World Health Organization)* — Safeguarding human health from climate change impacts is more urgent than ever, yet most countries are not acting fully on their own plans to achieve this, according to the first global snapshot of progress on climate change and health.
Madrid, 3 December 2019 (World Meteorological Organization)*— The year 2019 concludes a decade of exceptional global heat, retreating ice and record sea levels driven by greenhouse gases from human activities. Average temperatures for the five-year (2015-2019) and ten-year (2010-2019) periods are almost certain to be the highest on record. 2019 is on course to be the second or third warmest year on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization..
Photo by Neil Palmer, CIAT
