The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab presents a new report on climate, agriculture, water, and food security — with plans for more research.
Early this August, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued yet another in a series of grave and disquieting reports outlining the extreme challenges placed on the Earth’s systems by the climate crisis. Most IPCC reports and accompanying media coverage tend to emphasize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy and transportation sectors, along with the weather and sea-level impacts of climate change and their direct impact on vulnerable human populations. However, this particular report, the "Special Report on Climate Change and Land," presents a sobering set of data and analyses addressing the substantial contributions of agriculture to climate change and the ways the climate crisis is projected to jeopardize global food security if urgent action is not taken at the individual, institutional, industry, and governmental levels.
There is an ever-increasing public awareness about climate’s effects on the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, threats to coastal cities, and the rapid decline in the biodiversity of the Earth’s ecosystems. However, the impact of climate change on land and food production — and the impact of our food systems on climate change — is just beginning to enter the wider public discourse. Food systems are responsible for up to 30 percent of global GHG emissions, with agricultural activities accounting for up to 86 percent of total food-system emissions. And agriculture is a sector that is put at significant risk by the direct and indirect effects of the Earth’s rising temperatures. In order to adapt to future climate uncertainty and to minimize agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, strategies addressing the sustainability and adaptive capacity of food systems must be developed and rapidly implemented.
With so much at stake, targeted research that reaches beyond disciplinary and institutional boundaries is needed. Since its 2014 launch at MIT, the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) has promoted research and innovation across diverse disciplines that will help ensure the resilience of the world’s water and food systems even as they are increasingly pressured by the effects of climate change. Its newly released report, "Climate Change, Agriculture, Water, and Food Security: What We Know and Don’t Know," is part of this effort.
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