This report explores the relationship between food price inflation, energy prices and climate driven extreme weather events. The authors find that year-on-year extreme weather is exacerbating food price inflation, offsetting the dampening effect of falling energy prices in 2023 in the UK.

This report from IPES-Food finds that 60% of low-income countries and 30% of middle-income countries are in or are at risk of debt distress, with 21 countries facing both debt distress and food insecurity. The report identifies four ways in which food systems are contributing to pressure on public finances: dependencies on imports and the dollar; extractive financial flows; boom-bust commodity cycles; and climate change. It calls for policymakers to provide debt relief as well as support for food system reform.

This report by the UNFCCC-supported Race to Zero sets out the implications for financial institutions of the shift towards sustainable land use. It sets out the policy landscape around limiting deforestation and land conversion for commodity production, as well as the financial losses in the food and agriculture sector caused by climate-linked disasters. It argues that investors are overlooking the risks to the financial value of 40 of the world’s largest food and agriculture firms that could be caused by new policies and changing consumer attitudes. It concludes that financial institutions need to do more to eliminate deforestation and land conversion from their portfolios, invest in nature-based solutions and advocate for just rural transition policies.

This investor briefing by the Changing Markets Foundation surveyed over 200 respondents from the investment community on their perceptions of how climate change may affect the meat and dairy industry. 82% agreed that climate change presents risks to the industry. 84% are concerned that a lack of climate mitigation could lead to stranded assets (investments or resources that become unprofitable, in this case due to water shortages or temperature increases; the term is commonly used to refer to fossil fuel resources that cannot be burned). 94% think that reducing methane as well as carbon dioxide emissions is important.

The importance of soil health for producing food and the complexity of life found within soil are increasingly visible in food systems debates. This paper investigates how the diversity of microbes within soils may be affected by warming climates.

This paper estimates the total greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, CH4 and N2O) of the global food system and breaks them down into those from plant-based and animal-based foods. It finds that, in 2010, 57% of food system GHG emissions was from the production of animal-based foods, including from livestock feed, 29% was from plant-based foods, and 14% was from other sources (biomass used for purposes other than feed or food). 

This paper sets out a “safe climatic space” for food production and finds that, while climate change could put around one third of global crop and livestock production at risk, keeping to the Paris Agreement could reduce this risk considerably.

This book, co-authored by Table member Michael P. Hoffmann, uses a typical menu - from appetisers to desserts - to explain how climate change is challenging people in the supply chain who help bring food to grocery stores.

Academics and students from Cornell University have released a website, Our Changing Menu, that tells the story of climate change using food. Aimed at a general audience and accompanying the book of the same name, it explains climate change, describes how the production of foods such as avocados, olive oil and beef might change, and offers solutions. A searchable food ingredient database, which will continue to be updated, shows how selected ingredients are expected to be affected by climate change.