UN chief calls for change in food systems
Noting that food systems create onethird of greenhouse gases, UN head Antonio Guterres said following UN sustainable goals established in 2015 could end hunger and poverty while creating global health and wealth
NEW YORK: UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres said the world needs to change how it makes, eats and wastes food in comments to the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly. “The war on our planet must end and food systems can help us build that peace,” Guterres told the UN summit in New York.
Noting that food systems create one-third of greenhouse gases, he said following UN sustainable goals established in 2015 could end hunger and poverty while creating global health and wealth.
Guterres called for reform of agricultural subsidies and said food should not be seen “simply as a commodity to be traded, but as a right that every person shares.”
The World Bank Group, International Food Policy Research Institute and Food and Land Use Coalition laid out plans at the summit to unlock $4.5 trillion in business opportunities with fairer food systems.
After US President Joe Biden announced he would invest $10 billion to end hunger earlier in the week, the Bill Gates Foundation committed $900 million to end malnutrition across the globe on Thursday. Small island nations such as the Marshall Islands and the Maldives could be left underwater by rising sea levels caused by a 2-degree heat change, its leaders said.
“We simply have no higher ground to cede,” Marshall Islands President David Kabua told leaders in a prerecorded speech on Wednesday. “The difference between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees
is a death sentence for the Maldives,” President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said on Tuesday.
The November UN climate conference in Glasgow will try to pursue the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement to cut global emissions by half for 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Carbon fuel emissions create greenhouse gases that erode the ozone layer, contributing to global warming and rising seas as polar ice caps melt.
But Guyana President Irfaan Ali said Thursday that large polluters were not delivering on their promises to cut emissions. Ali said their “deception” and “failure” would “profit them little to emerge king over a world of dust.”
Both the US and China have pledged more cash to help other countries reduce their carbon footprint.