Food Insecurity and Climate Change in Cities: Meeting Challenges Through an Integrated Approach

As urbanization in developing countries accelerates, and urban poverty, hunger, and malnutrition increase, the global food security community and sustainable cities community must unite to create sustainable solutions. To date, the global food security community has focused on improving agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods as the key to addressing global food insecurity. Such interventions have little effect on hunger and malnutrition in cities. To date, the sustainable cities community has focused on the housing, water, energy, and transportation needs of urban communities, while the food and nutrition needs of city residents are rarely explicitly considered in urban planning. This networking event will address three major themes: (1) the importance of improving data on food security in cities to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2, SDG 11, and related goals; (2) the role of city networks in spurring action and achieving reductions in food insecurity and greenhouse gas emissions at the same time; and (3) the necessity to consider food systems in their entirety – including producers and consumers in urban and surrounding rural areas – in order to achieve sustainable improvements in global food security and nutrition. Including cities in global food security efforts, and including food security in urban planning, can help achieve goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the COP21 Paris Agreement. SDG 2 calls for the elimination of hunger and malnutrition, which will require the global food security community to attack hunger and malnutrition across the rural-to-urban spectrum. Achieving the goals of the COP21 Paris Agreement will require strong and collaborative action by cities. Food production accounts for 11 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions; including food distribution and land use, food systems account for 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Cities can create and implement comprehensive solutions that reduce carbon emissions and increase resilience system-wide.