This study is the first to quantify the relationship between human population growth and energy use on an international scale. It explains how global population growth has begun, in the past 50 years, to catch up with energy consumption for the first time in 500 years.  Until that point, each generation had produced more energy per person than its predecessor, which allowed for an increase in Earth's carrying capacity and in the number of people it could sustain at equilibrium.

This paper, published in OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Papers is aimed at showcasing the growing evidence base on supply-side (agricultural) greenhouse gas mitigation for reducing the emissions intensity of agriculture while maintaining or increasing production. It does this by reviewing 65 recent international studies of cost-effectiveness covering 181 individual activities and by explaining some of the key concepts involved in this field.

FCRN has previously highlighted the new Swedish dietary guidelines in a blog-post, “Environmental concerns now in Sweden’s newly launched dietary guidelines” by the Swedish researcher and FCRN collaborator Elin Röös, where she also talks to representatives from the Swedish Food Agency about the challenges involved in writing the new guidelines. This report is now available in full in English. 

This report is the result of the work of a Taskforce of academics, industry and policy experts commissioned to examine the resilience of the global food system to extreme weather. The summary report is built on three detailed reports: Climate and global production shocks (Annex A); Review of the responses to production shocks (Annex B) and the Country-level impacts of global grain production shocks (Annex C). The report concludes that the global food system is vulnerable to production shocks caused by extreme weather, and that this risk is growing. It suggests that climate change and a growing population will increase the likelihood of food "shocks" - where the production of staple crops such as rice, wheat and soybean fall by 5-7%, arguing that it will triple in likelihood in just 25 years. The preliminary analysis of limited existing data suggests that the risk of a 1-in-100 year production shock is likely to increase to 1-in-30 or more by 2040.

Over 50 expert presentations have been given on different aspects of climate change and agriculture in the MICCA Programme webinars during the past 3 years. Examples include recent webinars on conservation agriculture and climate-smart & gender-sensitive aquaculture.

Photo credit: Getty images The German car giant Volkswagen has admitted that they have cheated in emissions tests in the US. Since 2009, Volkswagen has been installing elaborate software in 482,000 "clean diesel" vehicles sold in the US and according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), these cars had devices in their diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results. The cars' pollution controls would then only work when being tested for emissions.

A systematic evidence review by researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Behaviour and Health Research Unit, investigates the influence of portion, package and tableware size on food consumption.

This second annual nutrition report by IFPRI is a comprehensive summary and scorecard on both global and country level progress on all forms of nutrition. It covers nutrition status and program coverage—as well as underlying determinants such as food security; water, sanitation, and hygiene; resource allocations; and institutional and policy changes—globally (for 193 countries).  The 2015 edition highlights the critical relationship between climate change and nutrition and the pivotal role business can play.

This initiative launched by Fondation Nicolas Hulot (FNH), the International Urban Food Network (IUFN) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) it aims to highlight the strategic links between sustainable food, sustainable urban development and climate change. The initiative will showcase successful mechanisms and approaches to help respond to the challenges of achieving sustainable urban food systems in a changing climate.