Climate extremes behind rising global hunger – UN

PARIS: Extreme weather events were a leading cause of global hunger rising last year, with women, babies, and old people particularly vulnerable to the worsening trend,

Increasingly frequent shocks such as extreme rainfall or temperatures, as well as droughts, storms, and floods, helped push the number of undernourished people to 821 million in 2017, it said.

one in nine people globally, was up from 804 million in 2016, according to the annual report “The

- tion in the World.”

“The number of people who suffer from hunger has been growing over the past three years, returning to levels that prevailed almost a decade ago. Equally of concern is that 22.2 percent of children un-

2017,” said the document.

Low- and middle-income countries, in particular, were harshly impacted by ever-more frequent climate extremes.

“Africa is the region where climate shocks and stressors had the biggest impact on acute food insecurity and malnutrition, affecting 59 million people in 24 countries and requiring urgent humanitarian action,” the report said.

Trends were also worsening in

“If we are to achieve a world without hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030, it is imperative that we accelerate and scale up actions to strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity of food systems and people’s livelihoods in response to climate variability and extremes,” it added.

No let-up for Syria, Yemen

extreme weather events have always occurred, scientists say global warming is boosting the frequency and severity of such events.

climate shocks coincide, the impact on food insecurity was even more relentless, the report said. Nearly 66 million people worldwide required urgent humanitarian assistance last year.

the few sectors to have survived the seven-year war, saw its harvest hit by rising temperatures and drought.

Already down 40 percent from - lion tons to around 2.5 million

“will suffer a new reduction” this

Organization’s director of emergencies Dominique Burgeon said.

seasonality, quantity and distribution of rainfall, and these factors combined have led to the overall weakening of the agricultural sector,” he told Agence

Yemen has suffered an even worse fate, with 35 percent of the population undernourished, Burgeon said, making the war-torn nation home to the world’s “most acute food crisis today.”

Boys fed better

- wide are especially vulnerable to the impact of climate extremes, particularly in countries where even a semblance of gender parity remains a distance dream.

This is because they often lack access to wealth, land, education and healthcare.

Chad has dried up because of rising temperatures, forcing women to walk further to collect water for their families.

In India, limited resources coupled with entrenched gender inequalities saw poor families feed their boys better than girls when resources were limited.

Babies and young children were more at risk of long- term problems, and even of dying, from diarrhea caused by disease follow-

water for drinking and sanitation.

Old and disabled people were also hard hit.

“In Vietnam, the elderly, widows, disabled people, single mothers, and households headed by women with small children were

and slow-onset events such as recurrent droughts,” the report said.

global rise of obesity in adults, particularly in North America, but also in Africa and Asia.

Governments around the world have taken steps to combat the over-

Norway, and Mexico rolling out taxes on sugary soft drinks, for instance.