60% of Australians worried about climate change impacts on food

Almost 60% of Australians think climate change is affecting our ability to grow and access food in Australia, according to a new pool conducted by Oxfam Australia. In the 18-34 age bracket, this figure jumped to 68%.

“It’s clear that people are beginning to make the link between climate change and food. A hot world is a hungry world, with extreme weather and unreliable growing seasons becoming the new norm, playing havoc with farming and destroying crops,” said Dr Helen Szoke, Oxfam Australia chief executive.

“Left unchecked, climate change could lead to an extra 50 million hungry people by 2050.”

Among developed countries, Australia is particularly vulnerable to climate change, Dr Szoke said, due in part to our reliance on the agricultural sector and the concentration of our population along our coastlines.

The Asia-Pacific region as a whole is struggling with the impact of climate change on food production, being affected by sea levels rising, extreme heat, more intense tropical cyclones and damage to marine ecosystems through warming and acidification.

In its Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that without action, climate change will negatively impact production of major crops (wheat, rice and corn), with average yields declining up to 2% per decade for the rest of the century.

“Sadly, in a world of plenty, one in nine people - or 805 million people - go to bed hungry. Climate change is pushing food prices up and food availability down. Women and farmers in poor communities are being hit the hardest,” Dr Szoke said.

According to Dr Szoke, as a highly developed country with big carbon emissions, Australia has two key responsibilities: to reduce our emissions and support poorer countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change and implement their own low-carbon development strategies.

“With our enormous solar energy potential and other abundant renewable energy resources, Australia has more than most countries to gain from acting on climate change. Right now, we risk being left behind in the race to a clean, prosperous, low-carbon future, where everyone has enough to eat,” said Dr Szoke.