The United Nations (UN) assured today that the right to food is threatened by climate change, so urged States parties to take urgent measures to combat it and to courts around the world to demand accountability.
Volker Türk, high commissioner of the international body, made the announcement during a session of the Human Rights Council dedicated to the Adverse Impact of Climate Change on the Full Realization of the Right to Food, adding that this trend puts up to 80 million more people at risk of hunger by the middle of this century; a figure that would be added to the 828 million people who went hungry in 2021.
The official pointed out that the leaders expressed on numerous occasions their intention to take measures to curb climate change and promise to act, but then “get stuck in the short term”. According to United Nations estimates, if urgent supplies are not taken, the average temperature increase at the end of this century would be 3 degrees Celsius, which would make ecosystems, air, food, water and human life, were unrecognizable.
In this sense, the UN expressed, through a statement, that extreme weather events, and both sudden and gradual disasters caused by climate change, they can wipe out crops, herds, fisheries and entire ecosystems.
“Vast territories would disappear under the rise of the oceans, or would become practically uninhabitable, due to the heat and the lack of water. Last August, the temperature in Basra, in southern Iraq, rose to 52.6 degrees. I will travel to Iraq later this year, in part to highlight the risks of this dystopian future,” Türk stressed.
Worldwide, disasters “related to floods” increased by 134% caused by the climate between 2000-2023”, pointed out the UN publication and remarked that there are “an increasing frequency of repetition of these phenomena” that makes it impossible for communities
can rebuild and maintain themselves.
“The predictable and regular swing of the seasons deviates wildly from its course. Cyclones of unprecedented proportions strike deadly storm surges. A heat wave sweeps across the ocean, threatening marine life, fisheries, and corals. And the inland seas and lakes, which have
fed generations of farmers and fishermen, they are turning into bowls of dust,” Türk added.
For its part, the organization Experts on Climate Change assured that extreme weather events related to climate change already damaged the productivity of all agricultural and fishing sectorswith negative consequences for people’s food security and livelihoods.
“As global warming accelerates, these repercussions will become more widespread and intense. No country will escape unscathed. The most affected will be the inhabitants of countries where there is already food insecurity and where protection systems are not robust enough to respond effectively to climate disturbances,” Türk said.
In addition, the official considered that current challenges can be faced using “technological tools most powerful in history”, ending the fossil fuel industry and switching to green energy.
Consequently, urged courts around the world to hold companies and governments accountable and to transform international development and finance institutions into engines of climate action, so that the countries and people most affected have access to the necessary resources to deal with it.
“If steps are taken to uphold good governance so that when funding is available, it brings support and remedy to those most affected, then it can take place. a just transition to a green economy, nationally and globally”, he expressed.
Telam Agency