Reducing Climate Change Impacts on Food Systems

In the face of the climate emergency, cities worldwide are taking bold steps to cut emissions (mitigation) and boost their climate resilience (adaptation). These actions aim to safeguard citizens and infrastructure from current and future extreme weather events. Alarmingly, 97% of C40 cities are already feeling the effects of climate breakdown, with major hazards including storms, flooding, sea level rise, extreme heat, drought, and landslides.

To ensure that investments in the transition to zero carbon are effective, cities must integrate climate change adaptation into their plans for clean energy, buildings, transport, waste, and other key sectors. Ignoring this integration risks mal-investment and missed opportunities. By considering climate hazards early, cities can reduce risks for building owners without necessarily increasing project costs.

How Does Climate Change Impact Food Systems?

Climate change poses a serious threat to our food systems. Events like extreme heat, fires, droughts, and flooding can lead to reduced agricultural productivity, lower nutritional quality, crop damage, disease spread, disrupted supply chains, and food price spikes. With rapid urbanization increasing food demand, it’s crucial to ensure urban food systems are stable, resilient, and capable of recovering from disruptions. The impact of climate change on food systems depends on their adaptive capacities to local and global climate stressors, which are largely shaped by today’s policies.

Food systems are also vulnerable to failures in electrical power, fuel distribution, telecommunication networks, transportation networks, and water supply, as these systems are highly interdependent. Many urban areas already face high levels of food insecurity. Without proper adaptation measures, natural disasters could worsen citizens’ access to healthy and safe food. Planning for stable systems that support food security before, during, and after natural disasters is essential.

Shifting consumption towards low-carbon diets can positively impact both a city’s ability to adapt to climate change and the overall strength of its food system. Aligning with the Planetary Health Diet reduces reliance on water-intensive livestock, making food systems less stressed during droughts. Investing in transforming citizens’ diets today can yield beneficial mitigation and adaptation outcomes tomorrow.

Early interventions to strengthen urban food systems offer potential co-benefits for climate mitigation and adaptation. City practitioners should integrate food systems into proactive planning for climate-related hazards. Evaluating a city’s food system vulnerabilities allows for developing more resilient food supply chains and sources capable of coping with and recovering from various climate hazards.

Examples of Climate Change Adaptation Measures in Food System Strategies

Extreme Heat

• Urban Agriculture: Increasing green spaces with crops, street and fruit trees, and allotments reduces solar radiation and lowers temperatures through evaporative cooling and shading.
• Green Roofs: These can contribute to urban cooling by reducing roof surface and surrounding air temperatures, and save energy by reducing the need for air conditioning.
• Food Waste Collection: Adjusting collection times to protect workers’ health during heatwaves.
• Waste Management: Shuffling organic waste frequently to avoid odor, toxic gases, and ignition.
• Market Stalls: Protecting outdoor food stalls from direct sun exposure with shading structures to prevent food deterioration.

Extreme Weather Events

• Sustainable Distribution Hubs: Diversifying food supply chains with large-scale and small-scale systems to reduce vulnerability to disruptions.
• Emergency Response Plans: Preparing for food supply disruptions during extreme weather events.
• Backup Generators: Ensuring commercial food processing and storage facilities have backup power during extreme weather and public health crises.
• Vulnerability Mapping: Assessing risks to urban food systems and potential supply chain disruptions.

Flooding

• Urban Agriculture: Reducing impacts of higher rainfall by keeping low-lying zones free from construction, reducing stormwater runoff, and storing excess water in green spaces.
• Green Roofs: Enhancing stormwater management and water quality, reducing and slowing stormwater runoff, and filtering pollutants from rainfall.
• Backup Generators: Ensuring commercial food processing and storage facilities have backup power.

Drought

• Organic Compost: Improving soil structure and health, increasing yields, and enhancing water absorption and retention.
• Low-Carbon Diets: Reducing demand on water-intensive livestock to mitigate emissions and reduce water system demands during natural disasters.
• Water Diversification: Including surface and groundwater sources, adopting smart irrigation technologies, and using rain barrels for water collection and storage.
• Public Water Stations: Providing fill-up stations across the city for deployment during climate shocks.
• Water Management: Improving water management and rezoning urban agriculture.
• Renewable Energy: Utilizing renewable energy for irrigation, water pumping, soil preparation, plant management, drying, processing, storing, and transporting food.

source :

https://www.c40knowledgehub.org/s/article/Reducing-climate-change-impacts-on-food-systems?language=en_US