Climate threatens crippling food costs

Charities are warning of crippling food price rises here and worldwide if immediate action is not taken to counteract the effects of climate change.

Oxfam Ireland and Christian Aid said, without more investment in agriculture and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, shortages of key crops like wheat and maize would continue, leading to increased hunger, poverty and political instability.

Their warnings come ahead of a two-day international conference starting in Dublin today which will be addressed by former US vice-president Al Gore and former president Mary Robinson along with the heads of the World Food Programme and UNICEF, President Michael D Higgins, government ministers and EU representatives.

Research to be presented at the conference will say the world’s population will grow by 2 billion by 2050, increasing demand for staple crops while simultaneously causing further climate change that will reduce the ability of agriculture to ensure stable production.

Oxfam Ireland says the impact will be felt much sooner than that with studies it commissioned warning the prices of wheat and maize could more than double by 2030.

“Extreme weather means extreme prices. Last year’s devastating drought in the US Midwest and the 2011 famine in East Africa should service as a wake-up call to governments about the impact of climate change on ordinary people,” said chief executive Jim Clarken. “Irish people will not be immune from price hikes as drought and unpredictable weather systems wipe out crops and eradicate people’s ability to cope.”

Mr Clarken said the conference represented a pivotal moment for Ireland to put pressure on other governments to start taking action. “They can start by making developed countries agree to increase their current targets to cut emissions to more than 40% below 1990 levels by 2020.”

Sorley McCaughey, head of advocacy and policy at Christian Aid, also said the conference could become a turning point if the message was received that tackling climate change required finance to improve agricultural practices as well as the will to reduce emissions.

“For both moral and self-interested reasons, Ireland and other developed countries should commit themselves to delivering new and continued climate finance to help farmers in the developing world to adapt to our fast-changing climate.”

Christian Aid is calling for a levy on international shipping and aviation, whose contributions to climate change are largely untaxed. “That would discourage climate pollution by international plane and ship journeys and at the same time raise billions of euro which should be earmarked to help poor families cope with climate change.”

Oxfam Ireland is urging greater support for women farmers in developing countries who do most of the farm work, but rarely own the land. “There is significant evidence that if they had the same access to productive resources such as seeds, credit and training as men they could increase yields by between 20% and 30%,” Mr Clarken said.

The conference is jointly hosted by the Government and the Mary Robinson Foundation — Climate Justice. She says climate change is a justice issue because those worst affected by extreme weather events are the world’s poorest who did least to cause the problem.