Leanne Jansen
The number of people going to bed hungry every night was rising again, international aid agency Oxfam warned at a forum on climate change communication in Durban on Friday.
The NGO’s climate change adviser, Tim Gore, said that although the figure had dropped after it passed the 1 billion mark in 2009, and was pegged at 925 million in 2010, it has again spiked this year.
Gore was apprising those at the climate conference in Durban attending the organisation’s presentation on the effects of climate change, using the narrative of food justice to mobilise people and help them understand a highly technical issue.
Oxfam believes that the dire situation can be attributed to trends such as under-investment in smallholder agriculture, volatile food prices and insecure land tenure – all exacerbated by climate change.
According to Gore, the poor spend 75 percent of their income on food, and for a farmer who has two cropping seasons a year – two chances a year to feed his family – a decline in yields owing to global temperature increases is devastating.
As it stands, $50 billion (R402bn) more is being spent on food a year as a result of climate change, as a drop in crop yields pushes up food prices.
Estimates are that for every 1°C rise in temperature, there will be a corresponding 10 percent decrease in yields.
Gore said that although extreme weather events grabbed headlines, such as the floods in Pakistan, the related rise in the global wheat price also had severe consequences. “The drought in the Horn of Africa – which affected 13 million people – pushed up maize prices by 20 to 30 percent.”
Gore said it was important to stress “the particular vulnerability of women” who were “on the frontline, bearing the brunt”. He explained that women would go hungry to feed their husbands and children, also employing short-term coping strategies that had long-term effects – such as selling off livestock and forfeiting their children’s education.
“At the end of next week, what would help us stop hunger, in Durban, are two things,” Gore said. “We’re heading for 4°C (global temperature increase), the implications are dire. We need to make sure that at the end of the week, there’s clarity on the pledges to reduce emissions. There’s talk of 2020 for increasing these ambitions – but that’s far too late. We need a pathway that sees much greater emissions reduction, and we must make sure Kyoto is saved. Second, the Green Climate Fund must be up and running as soon as possible,” he said.
Gore said many people were hopeful about the “African COP” in Durban, but that this was not the first time that UN climate talks had been held in Africa.
“Ten years ago, promises were made in Marrakesh (COP 7), which were broken. Only $200 million was provided to meet the needs of the poorest (while $2bn was requested by developing countries for adaptation purposes.”
