The UN’s scientific body on climate change highlights in a new report the strong connection between land use and climate change. A radical change in the food system is key to people’s livelihoods and health worldwide.
The earth’s population is growing and, with it, consumption. This trend will only increase in the near future, but the planet’s resources are limited, and land isn’t an exception.
The stark connection between how land is used and its effect on climate change is the focus of the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published on August 8.
At the center of the report is how, in a sort of vicious circle, unhealthy soils and forests exacerbate climate change, while climate change, in turn, negatively impacts the forests and soils’ health.
The IPCC’s findings are the result of two years of work by 103 experts from 52 countries who were involved on a voluntary basis.
Before its release, the report was discussed with governments in Geneva, Switzerland, and approved with the consensus of all participating IPCC member countries.
The report doesn’t paint a promising future: If global warming goes beyond the 2 degrees Celsius limit set forth in the Paris Agreement, what will likely happen is that fruitful land will turn to desert, infrastructure will crumble as permafrost thaws, and drought and extreme weather events will put the food system at risk.
Switching to a plant-based diet can help fight climate change, UN experts have said.
But scientists and officials stopped short of explicitly calling on everyone to become vegan or vegetarian.
They said that more people could be fed using less land if individuals cut down on eating meat.
The report also states that in a 1.5 degree warming scenario, 178 million people are projected to suffer from lack of water and desertification by 2050. In a 2 degree warming scenario, that number increases to 220 million people worldwide over the same period of time
