Global trends of population growth, rising living standards and the rapidly increasing urbanized world are increasing the demand on water, food and energy. Added to this is the growing threat of climate change which will have huge impacts on water and food availability.

This paper presents biodiversity scenarios as a useful tool to help policymakers predict how flora and fauna will likely respond to future environmental conditions. Although changes to land use are a major driver of biodiversity loss, the study finds that scenarios focus overwhelmingly on climate change. The researchers argue that this imbalance makes scenarios less credible, and they make recommendations on how to improve and make more plausible projections.

As the climate changes, and food demand increases, crop varieties suited to these conditions need to be developed. The authors of this paper warn that crops yields around the world could fall within a decade unless action is taken to speed up the introduction of new varieties. They propose three ways to improve matching of maize varieties in Africa to a warmed climate: reduce the BDA (the process of breeding, delivery and adoption), breed under elevated temperatures and act to mitigate climate change.

In a recent blog-post on the UN’s Academic Impact website, Sonja Vermeulen and Andy Challinor write the third piece in a series on Food security and climate change entitled “Global Models Must Meet Grassroots Action to Deliver Climate Solutions for Farmers”. 

The book provides an analysis of impacts of climate change on water for agriculture, and the adaptation strategies in water management to deal with these impacts.

This report by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) represents a consensus of more than 30 authors from 19 institutions across four countries. The report brings together modelling and forecasting research on climate change to the year 2100, and explores how these changes will affect food and agricultural systems worldwide, and in particular in the US.

This report by Ecometrica summarises the five key agreed outcomes of the recent 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) held in Paris and highlights their implications for businesses.

This paper presents evidence that humans are undoubtedly altering many geological processes on Earth—and that we have been for some time. According to the international group of geoscientists the evidence is overwhelming that the impact of human activity on Earth has pushed us into a new geological era, a human-dominated time period, termed the “Anthropocene.”

The certification organisation Rainforest Alliance states that scaled-up efforts to support climate-smart agriculture practices are desperately needed to support the millions of cocoa farmers that are suffering from the negative impacts of climate change.