Jun 2, 2018, 02:16 AM by System

After steadily declining for over a decade, global hunger is on the rise again, affecting 815 million people in 2016, or 11 per cent of the global population, says a new edition of the annual United Nations report on world food security and nutrition released today. At the same time, multiple forms of malnutrition are threatening the health of millions worldwide.



The increase – 38 million more people than the previous year – is largely due to the proliferation of violent conflicts and climate-related shocks, according to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017.



Some 155 million children aged under five are stunted (too short for their age), the report says, while 52 million suffer from wasting, meaning their weight is too low for their height. An estimated 41 million children are now overweight. Anaemia among women and adult obesity are also cause for concern. These trends are a consequence not only of conflict and climate change but also of sweeping changes in dietary habits as well as economic slowdowns.



The report is the first UN global assessment on food security and nutrition to be released following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 as a top international policy priority.



It singles out conflict – increasingly compounded by climate change – as one of the key drivers behind the resurgence of hunger and many forms of malnutrition.



"Over the past decade, conflicts have risen dramatically in number and become more complex and intractable in nature," the heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said in their joint foreword to the report. They stressed that some of the highest proportions of food-insecure and malnourished children in the world are now concentrated in conflict zones.



"This has set off alarm bells we cannot afford to ignore: we will not end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 unless we address all the factors that undermine food security and nutrition. Securing peaceful and inclusive societies is a necessary condition to that end," they said.



Famine struck in parts of South Sudan for several months in early 2017, and there is a high risk that it could reoccur there as well as appear in other conflict-affected places, namely northeast Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, they noted.



But even in regions that are more peaceful droughts or floods linked in part to the El Niño weather phenomenon, as well as the global economic slowdown, have also seen food security and nutrition deteriorate, they added.

Key numbers

Hunger and food security

Overall number of hungry people in the world: 815 million, including:

In Asia: 520 million



In Africa: 243 million



In Latin America and the Caribbean: 42 million

Share of the global population who are hungry: 11%

Asia: 11.7%



Africa: 20% (in eastern Africa, 33.9%)



Latin America and the Caribbean: 6.6%

Malnutrition in all its forms

Number of children under 5 years of age who suffer from stunted growth (height too low for their age): 155 million

Number of those living in countries affected by varying levels of conflict: 122 million

Children under 5 affected by wasting (weight too low given their height): 52 million

Number of adults who are obese: 641 million (13% of all adults on the planet)

Children under 5 who are overweight: 41 million

Number of women of reproductive age affected by anaemia: 613 million (around 33% of the total)

The impact of conflict

Number of the 815 million hungry people on the planet who live in countries affected by conflict: 489 million

The prevalence of hunger in countries affected by conflict is 1.4 - 4.4 percentage points higher than in other countries

In conflict settings compounded by conditions of institutional and environmental fragility, the prevalence is 11 and 18 percentage points higher

People living in countries affected by protracted crises are nearly 2.5 times more likely to be undernourished than people elsewhere

Note to editors

This is the first time that UNICEF and WHO join FAO, IFAD and WFP in preparing The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report. This change reflects the SDG agenda’s broader view on hunger and all forms of malnutrition. The UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, established by the General Assembly, is lending focus to this effort by motivating governments to set goals and invest in measures to address the multiple dimensions of malnutrition.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 has been re-geared for the SDG era and includes enhanced metrics for quantifying and assessing hunger, including two indicators on food insecurity and six indicators on nutrition.

The heads of agencies issuing today’s report are: José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of FAO; Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD; Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF; David Beasley, Executive Director of WFP; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO.</s>PARIS-Hunger is on the increase across the globe once again after a decade of declines, a UN report said Friday, thanks in part to climate change aggravating severe weather and conflicts.

The slowdown in global growth in recent years, which led to a collapse in the prices of numerous commodities, also had a negative impact on the ability of people in many countries to feed themselves, it said.

Some 815 million people, or 11 percent of the world’s population, were chronically undernourished in 2016, according to the annual UN report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World. “The increase - 38 million more people than the previous year - is largely due to the proliferation of violent conflicts and climate-related shocks,” said the report.

It said severe weather, “in part linked to climate change”, reduced the availability of food in many countries and contributed to a rise in food insecurity. Scientists are loath to attribute any particular weather event to climate change, but believe the increase in temperature is increasing the severity of storms and droughts.

But the report also points to a link between climate change and conflict.

It “singles out conflict - increasingly compounded by climate change - as one of the key drivers behind the resurgence of hunger and many forms of malnutrition” said a joint statement by the UN agencies which drafted the report. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) prepared the report.

“The concurrence of conflict and climate-related natural disasters is likely to increase with climate change, as climate change not only magnifies problems of food insecurity and nutrition, but can also contribute to a further downward spiral into conflict, protracted crisis and continued fragility,” said the report.

It listed nine conflict and climate related shocks associated with food crises in 2016, including in Syria and South Sudan, where over 53 million people were considered to be “food insecure”.

The report also noted that slowdown in global growth has had a negative impact on people’s ability to get enough to eat.

“Economic slowdowns in countries highly dependent on oil and other primary commodity export revenues have also had an impact on food availability and/or reduced people’s ability to access food,” said the report.

The UN agencies found that malnutrion had slowed the growth of 155 million children under the age of five, which also has an impacted on long-term health and educational attainment. Nearly 52 million were affected by wasting - being underweight for their height.

The report also found at the same time an increase in overweight young children, to 41 million.

“These trends are a consequence not only of conflict and climate change but also of sweeping changes in dietary habits as well as economic slowdowns,” said the report.</s>LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Doctors should take the lead in supporting political efforts to cut the pace of climate change and encouraging more people to see the problem as a crucial issue for public health, experts say.

With the 68th World Health Assembly coming up in May in Geneva, countries are poised to adopt the world’s first resolution on air pollution and health, in an effort to reduce premature deaths linked to air pollution.

Studies have found that air pollution can worsen a variety of health problems, from heart disease to strokes, said Carlos Dora, coordinator of public health and the environment at the World Health Organization (WHO).

That suggests doctors should take action to try to curb air pollution and climate change, he said.

“Climate change is a big factor (in determining peoples’) health in the short term and doctors should take notice,” he said.

In particular, “there are a number of challenges to the capacities of current health systems to respond to these health issues, so doctors should be prepared”, he said.

For a growing number of doctors, “health and climate change are no longer seen as different issues and are almost seen as synonymous because there is more evidence and data out there that link the two,” he said.

A survey of members of the American Thoracic Society, which represents 15,000 physicians and other medical professionals who work on respiratory disease and related issues, found that the majority were already seeing health effects in patients that they believe are linked to climate change.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents said they have seen an increase in chronic diseases in patients that are linked to air pollution, and 65 percent said they believed climate change was directly relevant to patient care, according to the survey, conducted by the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University and published in the February edition of the journal Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

“There is more pressure for the health sectors to prepare themselves on how they can help the population in dealing with the diseases related to air pollution,” Dora said.

Dora said the resolution that WHO is working on would encourage health systems to have a more proactive response in dealing with health issues related to climate change, for instance by sharing health data about levels and sources of air pollution with other countries and prioritizing ways to curb emissions.

Health care providers should reach out and work with other health sectors in other countries to tackle these issues because working on a global scale could help find and implement solutions more quickly, the resolution suggests.

The resolution is currently being negotiated and is expected to be adopted in May at the assembly.

This is not the first time that health and climate experts are encouraging doctors to see health and climate as related issues and to advocate for action on climate change.

A group of military and medical experts published an article in the British Medical Journal in 2008 urging doctors to take a leading role in the highlighting the dangers of climate change, which could lead global security threats and health problems from worsening allergies to injuries from more frequent weather-related disasters.

Today, six of the top 10 polluted cities in the world are in India, with New Delhi topping the list for particulate matter in the air over a year, according to data from WHO. New Delhi’s annual average concentration of particulate matter registered 153 micrograms per cubic meter, with 25 micrograms per cubic meter considered a safe limit by WHO.

Dora said more doctors in India and China, also well-known for its poor air quality, should step up to help tackle climate change and its health impacts in their cities.

“In general, doctors [in India and China] are not very engaged,” he said. But “India is working on getting the doctor’s engagement in climate change responses and preparedness for what could happen in the future.”

Dora said he is optimistic the expected new international resolution on health and climate change could improve preparedness to deal with climate change.

“This resolution will provide the health sector with the equipment, tools, knowledge and capacity to respond to climate-related health issues in their area, while drawing upon resources and ideas from other players,” he said. “There’s still a lot the health systems can do, though, to adapt to climate change.”</s>Global hunger is on the rise for the first time in over a decade, thanks to a toxic combination of localised wars aggravated by climate extremes.

In 2016, the number of undernourished people increased year on year for the first time since 2003, when a peak of 947 million people (14.9 per cent of the world’s population) were undernourished. There were 815 million undernourished people in 2016 (11 per cent), up from 777 million in 2015 (10.6 per cent).

More than half of those hungry in 2016 – 489 million people – were in countries affected by conflicts. These have rapidly become more numerous, increasingly in tandem with droughts, floods and other climate-related shocks.

“There’s no doubt that there’s a clear interaction between climate change and conflict,” says Marco Sánchez Cantillo at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which has just published these figures in a report entitled “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World”. “They work together to accelerate and deepen the severity of hunger.”

For example, the report blames droughts triggered by the cyclical climate phenomenon called El Niño for aggravating the conflicts and food shortages in Somalia, Syria, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi.

It also links conflict-related food crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and South Sudan with other climate shocks including flooding, droughts not related to El Niño, landslides and cyclones.

Together, these problems left 53.5 million people without a reliable source of food.

Prolonged droughts are proving to be particularly potent triggers of conflict, says Cantillo. “They lead to severe food crises and famines, like those this year in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and north-east Nigeria,” he says. “They can lead to competition for scarce resources and increase prices, setting up a vicious cycle that spirals down into more food insecurity.”

The idea that climate change can cause or aggravate human conflicts has been deeply controversial. The FAO taking a side in the debate suggests a consensus is forming that the effect is real.

“This important report provides further evidence that climate-related shocks, especially droughts, exacerbate existing food and water insecurity, and can even contribute to social unrest when thresholds of resilience are crossed,” says Colin Kelley of Columbia University in New York. “In turn, conflict undermines resilience and dramatically reduces access to food and water, with devastating consequences for nutrition and health.”

In 2015, Kelley published a much-debated study that linked the current conflict in Syria to a prolonged drought.

The report also offers some potential solutions. “We think the hunger uptick is a wake-up call, and things will get worse if we don’t act,” says Cantillo.

He argues that the key is to make vulnerable populations more resilient to climate shocks, for example by providing farmers with drought- or flood-resistant crops, or stockpiling emergency food supplies.

“The emphasis on making communities more resilient in conflict situations, while laudable, avoids the key problem,” says Peter Brecke at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, who has also explored climate change’s historical impacts on conflict. “That problem is the inability of political institutions to resolve competing political demands, leaving groups believing that conflict is the only viable alternative.”</s>After steadily declining for over a decade, global hunger is on the rise again, affecting 815 million people in 2016, says a new edition of the annual United Nations report on world food security and nutrition released on Friday.

This translates into 11 per cent of the global population impact, according to a World Health Organisation release available to the Ghana News Agency.

It said at the same time, multiple forms of malnutrition are threatening the health of millions worldwide.

The increase – 38 million more people than the previous year – is largely due to the proliferation of violent conflicts and climate-related shocks, according to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017.

Some 155 million children aged under five are stunted (too short for their age), the report says, while 52 million suffer from wasting, meaning their weight is too low for their height. An estimated 41 million children are now overweight. Anaemia among women and adult obesity are also cause for concern.

These trends are a consequence not only of conflict and climate change but also of sweeping changes in dietary habits as well as economic slowdowns.

The report is the first UN global assessment on food security and nutrition to be released following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 as a top international policy priority.

It singles out conflict – increasingly compounded by climate change – as one of the key drivers behind the resurgence of hunger and many forms of malnutrition.

“Over the past decade, conflicts have risen dramatically in number and become more complex and intractable in nature,” the heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said in their joint foreword to the report.

They said some of the highest proportions of food-insecure and malnourished children in the world are now concentrated in conflict zones.

“This has set off alarm bells we cannot afford to ignore: we will not end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 unless we address all the factors that undermine food security and nutrition. Securing peaceful and inclusive societies is a necessary condition to that end,” they said.

Famine struck in parts of South Sudan for several months in early 2017, and there is a high risk that it could reoccur there as well as appear in other conflict-affected places, namely northeast Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, they noted.

But even in regions that are more peaceful droughts or floods linked in part to the El Niño weather phenomenon, as well as the global economic slowdown, have also seen food security and nutrition deteriorate, they added

According to the report, in Africa: 243 million remained hungry. The share of the global population who are hungry: 11% with Africa: 20% (in eastern Africa, 33.9%)African countries affected by conflict records 489 million from the 815 million hungry people on the planet.

People living in countries affected by protracted crises are nearly 2.5 times more likely to be undernourished than people elsewhere.

This is the first time that UNICEF and WHO join FAO, IFAD and WFP in preparing The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report.

This change reflects the SDG agenda’s broader view on hunger and all forms of malnutrition.

The UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, established by the General Assembly, is lending focus to this effort by motivating governments to set goals and invest in measures to address the multiple dimensions of malnutrition.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 has been re-geared for the SDG era and includes enhanced metrics for quantifying and assessing hunger, including two indicators on food insecurity and six indicators on nutrition.

The heads of agencies issuing Friday’s report are: José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of FAO; Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD; Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF; David Beasley, Executive Director of WFP; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO.</s>World hunger is rising again despite rising wealth in Asia, Africa and South America. At least 815 million people suffer from severe hunger and malnutrition around the world, an increase of 38 million over 2015.

Multiple forms of malnutrition are threatening the health of millions more worldwide mainly due to violent conflicts and climate-related shocks, according to a major United Nations report on The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017. It is signed by the six major UN agencies directly involved in combatting global hunger and its 2016 figures are the latest available.

Some 155 million children aged under five are stunted (too short for their age) and 52 million suffer from wasting (their weight is too low for their height).

“Over the past decade, conflicts have risen dramatically in number and become more complex and intractable in nature … This has set off alarm bells we cannot afford to ignore: we will not end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 unless we address all the factors that undermine food security and nutrition,” a joint statement by the heads of the six agencies says.

“Securing peaceful and inclusive societies is a necessary condition to that end.”

This emphasis on the necessity for inclusive societies for an issue often seen as economic echoes the former Obama administration’s view.

It may also be the Trump administration’s view but has not yet been clearly and forcefully stated in the context of global hunger.

The report carries added authority because for the first time, it was issued jointly by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

It is their first since UN member governments approved a new Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, which seeks to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030 among other things.

This rising outlook for global hunger is alarming because most of the knowledge and money needed to sharply reduce if not eradicate hunger and malnutrition are easily available.

The current suffering stems from choices made by governments rather than being an inevitable condition as in the past when remedies were not available.

Violent conflicts within and among nations often derive from failures to build inclusive societies, fueling long wars that displace tens of millions from their homes and devastate agriculture. They are manmade and not inevitable.

Climate change, though delivered by natural phenomena, is partly driven by irresponsible and profligate living around the world, including the US, other rich countries and large emerging economies like China and India.

Here are some key numbers:

 Hunger and food security
• Overall number of hungry people in the world: 815 million, including:

 o In Asia: 520 million

 o In Africa: 243 million

 o In Latin America and the Caribbean: 42 million
• Share of the global population who are hungry: 11%

 o Asia: 11.7%

 o Africa: 20% (in eastern Africa, 33.9%)

 o Latin America and the Caribbean: 6.6%

Malnutrition in all its forms
• Number of children under 5 years of age who suffer from stunted growth (height too low for their age): 155 million

 o Number of those living in countries affected by varying levels of conflict: 122 million
• Children under 5 affected by wasting (weight too low given their height): 52 million
• Number of adults who are obese: 641 million (13% of all adults on the planet)
• Children under 5 who are overweight: 41 million
• Number of women of reproductive age affected by anemia: 613 million (around 33% of the total)

The impact of conflict
• Number of the 815 million hungry people on the planet who live in countries affected by conflict: 489 million
• The prevalence of hunger in countries affected by conflict is 1.4 – 4.4 percentage points higher than in other countries
• In conflict settings compounded by conditions of institutional and environmental fragility, the prevalence is 11 and 18 percentage points higher
• People living in countries affected by protracted crises are nearly 2.5 times more likely to be undernourished than people elsewhere</s>ROME: Exacerbated by climate-related shocks, increasing conflicts have been a key driver of severe food crisis and recently re-emerged famines, a major United Nations joint report has just revealed.

Hunger and under nutrition are significantly worse where conflicts are prolonged and institutional capacities weak, on 15 September warned the first-ever UN report measuring progress on meeting new international goals pegged to eradicating hunger and malnutrition by 2030. “After steadily declining for over a decade, global hunger is on the rise again, affecting 815 million people in 2016, or 11 per cent of the global population, says a new edition of the annual report on world food security and nutrition.”

At the same time, multiple forms of malnutrition are threatening the health of millions worldwide, it adds.

“The increase – 38 million more people than the previous year – is largely due to the proliferation of violent conflicts and climate-related shocks, according to the study.”

Addressing food insecurity and malnutrition in conflict-affected situations cannot be “business as usual,” alerts the new edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017, Building Resilience for Peace and Food Security.

It requires a conflict-sensitive approach that aligns actions for immediate humanitarian assistance, long-term development and sustaining peace, says this year’s report, which has been elaborated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the UN World Food Program (WFP), along with the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The consequences

 The consequences are striking—around 155 million children aged under five are stunted (too short for their age), the report says, while 52 million suffer from wasting, meaning their weight is too low for their height.

Meantime, an estimated 41 million children are now overweight. Anaemia among women and adult obesity are also cause for concern. These trends are a consequence not only of conflict and climate change but also of sweeping changes in dietary habits and economic slowdowns.

The report is the first UN global assessment on food security and nutrition to be released following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 as a top international policy priority.

It singles out conflict – increasingly compounded by climate change – as one of the key drivers behind the resurgence of hunger and many forms of malnutrition.

And it sends a clear warning signal that the ambition of a world without hunger and malnutrition by 2030 will be challenging – achieving it will require renewed efforts through new ways of working.

More chronically undernourished people

 The joint report provides estimates of the number and proportion of hungry people on the planet and includes data for the global, regional, and national levels, while offering a significant update on the shifting global milieu that is today affecting people’s food security and nutrition, in all corners of the globe.

Among other key findings, it reveals that in 2016 the number of chronically undernourished people in the world is estimated to have increased to 815 million, up from 777 million in 2015 although still down from about 900 million in 2000.

After a prolonged decline, this recent increase could signal a reversal of trends.

“The food security situation has worsened in particular in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, South-Eastern Asia and Western Asia, and deteriorations have been observed most notably in situations of conflict and conflict combined with droughts or floods.”

The apparent halt to declining hunger numbers is not yet reflected in the prevalence of child stunting, which continues to fall, though the pace of improvement is slower in some regions, the report warns.

Globally, the prevalence of stunting fell from 29.5 per cent to 22.9 percent between 2005 and 2016, although 155 million children under five years of age across the world still suffer from stunted growth.

Children, stunted

 According to the report, wasting affected one in 12 of all children under five years of age in 2016, more than half of whom (27.6 million) live in Southern Asia.

Multiple forms of malnutrition coexist, with countries experiencing simultaneously high rates of child undernutrition, anaemia among women, and adult obesity, t reports, adding that rising rates of overweight and obesity add to these concerns.

Levels of child stunting are still unacceptably high in some regions, and if current trends continue, the SDG target on reducing child stunting by 2030 will not be reached, according to the report.

Economic slowdown

 Another key finding is that worsening food security conditions have also been observed in more peaceful settings, especially where economic slowdown has drained foreign exchange and fiscal revenues, affecting both food availability through reduced import capacity and food access through reduced fiscal space to protect poor households against rising domestic food prices.

“While underlining that the failure to reduce world hunger is closely associated with the increase in conflict and violence in several parts of the world, the report attempts to provide a clearer understanding of the nexus between conflict and food security and nutrition, and to demonstrate why efforts at fighting hunger must go hand-in-hand with those to sustain peace.”

Famine struck in parts of South Sudan for several months in early 2017, and there is a high risk that it could reoccur there as well as appear in other conflict-affected places, namely northeast Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, they reminded.

Alarm bells

 Over the past decade conflicts have risen dramatically in number and become more complex and intractable in nature, said José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General; David Beasley, WFP Executive Director; Gilbert F. Houngbo, IFAD President; Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

Some of the highest proportions of food-insecure and malnourished children are found in countries affected by conflict, a situation that is even more alarming in countries characterised by prolonged conflicts and fragile institutions.

“This has set off alarm bells we cannot afford to ignore: we will not end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 unless we address all the factors that undermine food security and nutrition,” the chiefs of the five UN agencies participating in the elaboration of the report have stated.

The five UN agencies heads also reaffirmed their determination and commitment now more than ever to step up concerted action to fulfil the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda and achieve a world free from hunger, malnutrition and poverty.

“Ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition is an ambitious goal, but it is one we strongly believe can be reached if we strengthen our common efforts and work to tackle the underlying causes that leave so many people food-insecure, jeopardizing their lives, futures, and the futures of their societies.”

In response to a question raised by IPS at a press conference held this morning to launch the report at FAO headquarters, the FAO DG da Silva emphasized that to reverse the adverse trend in the number of undernourished people, ‘we are all working together, especially in countries affected by conflict and climate change, and continuing our focus on emergencies and humanitarian issues. There are new tools available now, such as cash vouchers and food for work. Although lives were lost, we were able to pull South Sudan out of famine in three months and Somalia in six months. There is no illusion that all protracted crisis can be solved immediately’.

IFAD President Gilbert Houngbo said that ‘We should not wait for conflicts to be over. Long term investment is core to the solution, not only as seen from an agriculture perspective, but there are also issues of governance. Agriculture investment must also be combined with investment in technology and fighting food losses and creating access to markets.’</s>The United Nations reports world hunger is rising because conflicts and problems related to climate change are multiplying. The report finds about 815 million people globally did not have enough to eat in 2016 — 38 million more than the previous year.

The statistics in this report are particularly grim. They show that global hunger is on the rise again after more than a decade of steady decline. The report, a joint product by five leading U.N. agencies warns that malnutrition is threatening the health of and compromising the future of millions of people world-wide.

The report says 155 million children under age five suffer from stunting of their bodies and often their brains, thereby dimming prospects for the rest of their lives. It notes 52 million, or eight percent, of the world’s children suffer from wasting or low weight for their height.

Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund, Anthony Lake, says the lives and futures of countless children are blighted because of food insecurity. And those trapped by conflict are most at risk.

“Millions of children across northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen and elsewhere; innocent victims of a deadly combination of protracted, irresponsible conflicts; of drought, poverty and climate change… If unreached, a generation of children, more likely someday as adults, will replicate the hatred and conflicts of today,” Lake said.

The report also explores the problems of anemia among women and growing obesity among adults and children as well. This study does not present a favorable outlook for the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030.

Authors of the report say governments must set goals and invest in measures to bring down malnutrition and to promote healthy eating for healthy living.</s>LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Pope Francis might be preaching to the choir on climate change when he releases his environmental- and sustainability-focused encyclical later this year.

A study released by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication has found that more Catholics in the United States are worried about global warming than other Christian groups and they are more supportive of policy action to reduce the effects of climate change.

The findings come as Pope Francis has taken a strong stance backing action on climate change, saying it is largely a man-made problem and that it risks the lives of the world’s most vulnerable.

He criticised negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Peru last December, saying they had displayed “a lack of courage” in failing to push for stronger action.

“Pope Francis has become the most admired man in America and when he speaks, he speaks with a loud megaphone, one that reaches all people, Catholics and non-Catholics alike,” said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project.

“Climate change is not just a political issue, it’s a moral and religious issue and he will ask people, ‘What does my religious faith have to tell me and guide me about climate change?’ And it turns out that he’s speaking to a very willing audience within the Catholic community.”

The survey, which polled 1,275 adults, found that 70 percent of Catholics said global warming is happening, compared to 57 percent of other Christians, including people who identified themselves as Baptist, Protestant, Pentecostal, Eastern Orthodox, Mormon, or members of other Christian faiths.

Almost half of Catholics said global warming is primarily human-caused (48 percent) and understand that most scientists believe global warming is happening (46 percent), compared to other Christians at 35 percent and 37 percent, respectively, the study said.

Another Yale study found that understanding the scientific consensus on climate change – 97 percent of climate scientists agree that it is very likely due to human activities, NASA says — is a “gateway belief” that influences other key beliefs about climate change.

Pope Francis is expected to publish his teaching document in June or July, ahead of the United Nations climate change negotiations scheduled for December in Paris. He is also expected to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress in September.

Leiserowitz said the Pope’s announcement will “cut against the common political belief systems within the Catholic community.”

“We can see this division play out right now between moderate, liberal, and conservative Catholics,” he said. “What’s going to happen when the Pope comes out with his statement about global warming and how it’s a moral and religious duty to address it when conservative presidential and congressional candidates (in the 2016 election) are appeasing their base?”

“Will they change their view to be more aligned with the Church or stick with their identity as a conservative?” he asked.

In terms of addressing climate change, 81 percent of Catholics said in the survey that they support government funding for solar and wind power and tax rebates for people purchasing energy-efficient vehicles or solar panels. The same policies received support from 73 percent of other Christians, the Yale study suggests.

About 69 percent of Catholics also supported requiring electric utilities to produce at least 20 percent of their electricity from renewable resources, even if household bills increased $100 a year, compared to 53 percent of other Christians.

Pope Francis isn’t the only religious leader to speak out on environmental issues. However, he is one of the first very high-profile church leaders to take an outspoken stance on the need for action on climate change, and his international popularity is such that his views are listened to, Leiserowitz said.

The study “is definitely a wake-up call to many within the Catholic community about where their own members are at politically and morally, and how they might want to prioritise climate change as a stronger priority,” he said.

Dan Misleh, executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, a national organization that encourages Catholics to act on Catholic teaching as it relates to care for creation and climate change, said the Pope’s encyclical should be viewed as “a pastoral statement by the leader of our Church who is concerned about the moral consequences of climate change.”

“Our hope is that people realise this is not a political statement, a scientific statement, or a social statement,” he said. “It will have economic, political, and social consequences, but it’s not intended to be a statement in those arenas.”

Patrick Carolan, executive director of the Franciscan Action Network and founder of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, said there could be a divide within the Catholic community about the Pope’s message, but he hopes people see it as a “call to action.”

“He has really struck a nerve with people, and not just Catholics,” he said. “It (climate change) is a moral and spiritual issue and so far we’ve been trying to convince people of its effects with charts and graphs. Instead, we have to really touch their hearts and have a dialogue about it, and I hope it (the encyclical) does touch hearts.”</s>A truck engine is tested for pollution exiting its exhaust pipe as California Air Resources field representatives (unseen) work a checkpoint set up to inspect heavy-duty trucks traveling near the Mexican-U.S. border in Otay Mesa, California September 10, 2013. REUTERS/Mike Blake

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A significant majority of Americans say combating climate change is a moral issue that obligates them – and world leaders - to reduce carbon emissions, a Reuters/IPSOS poll has found.

The poll of 2,827 Americans was conducted in February to measure the impact of moral language, including interventions by Pope Francis, on the climate change debate. In recent months, the pope has warned about the moral consequences of failing to act on rising global temperatures, which are expected to disproportionately affect the lives of the world’s poor.

The result of the poll suggests that appeals based on ethics could be key to shifting the debate over climate change in the United States, where those demanding action to reduce carbon emissions and those who resist it are often at loggerheads.

Two-thirds of respondents (66 percent) said that world leaders are morally obligated to take action to reduce CO2 emissions. And 72 percent said they were “personally morally obligated” to do what they can in their daily lives to reduce emissions.

“When climate change is viewed through a moral lens it has broader appeal,” said Eric Sapp, executive director of the American Values Network, a grassroots organization that mobilizes faith-based communities on politics and policy issues.

“The climate debate can be very intellectual at times, all about economic systems and science we don’t understand. This makes it about us, our neighbors and about doing the right thing.”

Some observers believe the pope’s message can resonate beyond his own church.

“The moral imperative is the way to reach out to conservatives,” said Rev. Mitch Hescox, president of the Evangelic Environmental Network, a large evangelical organization that advocates for action on climate change.

Talking in terms of values is “the only way forward if we are to bring our fellow Republicans along,” he added.

Some Republican politicians have begun to search for a new message on climate change, in an attempt to distance the party from those who oppose most efforts to limit greenhouse gases and have questioned the science explaining human-caused climate change.

Whether shifting moral beliefs can translate widely into a willingness to modify carbon-intensive lifestyles and assume the costs of weaning the U.S. economy off fossil fuels remains to be seen. U.S. sales of trucks and SUVs have been rising in recent months, for example, spurred by lower gasoline prices.

But moral questions are increasingly invoked in the climate debate – and not just among anti-carbon activists.

In a Feb. 12 speech to oil industry leaders in London, Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden noted that “the issue is how to balance one moral obligation, energy access for all, against the other: fighting climate change.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also wrapped some of its anti-pollution initiatives in the language of “climate justice,” likening the battle against climate change to the mid-20th century fight for civil rights.

Pope Francis also vowed to make fighting climate change a centerpiece of his papacy, using his authority as head of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics to push political leaders toward a deal at a United Nations-sponsored conference in Paris this December that is aimed at cutting carbon emissions.

The pope has confronted critics of climate change science that finds human activities responsible for increases in global temperatures, saying in January that it is mostly ”man who has slapped nature in the face.”

Sixty-four percent of those polled agreed with the pope that human activities are largely responsible for the rising CO2 levels that scientists say drive climate change.

The pope also criticized the negotiators at a global climate conference in Peru last December for “a lack of courage” and has promised to issue an encyclical – a letter setting out papal doctrine – on climate issues that he hopes will add momentum to getting a deal in Paris.

In turn, he has been attacked by those who deny the scientific findings on global warming for aligning himself with environmentalists.

But only one in 10 saw him as a voice of authority on the issue, on a par with Democrats and Republicans in Congress and less than the percentage citing President Barack Obama (18 percent). The poll respondents also said that United Nations scientists and a popular U.S. television host, Bill Nye “The Science Guy”, carry more authority on climate change than U.S. politicians.

The Reuters poll was conducted from Feb. 13 to 25 and the results were weighted to current U.S. population data by gender, age, education and ethnicity. It has a credibility interval - which measures the survey’s precision - of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.
The World Health Organization says that hunger around the world has risen as a result of war and climate change.