Hunger costs

The report further ranks Australia amongst the worst developed countries on climate change policy. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that climate change will put 50 million extra people at risk of hunger by 2020 and an additional 266 million by 2080. Rich countries need to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, and provide the minimum US$200 billion needed annually to enable poor countries to adapt to climate change.

Australia also remains one of a number of developed countries yet to agree to the MDG target of committing 0.7 per cent of GNI to overseas development.

To meet the MDG1 goal of halving hunger, the Australian government and other world leaders meeting in New York this September must:

1. Invest in farmers:

• by agreeing to national plans to halve hunger by 2015, backed by costed, time-bound actions and firm financing commitments by both governments and donors;
• the UN estimates that at least US$40 billion in additional funding will be required annually to halve hunger by 2015; donors should set out a timetable and mechanism to meet their part of the need and guarantee that no country with a good plan for achieving the hunger goal is thwarted for lack of resources;
• national plans should focus on supporting poor farmers, particularly women, in order to maximise poverty and hunger reduction impacts and should expand social protection programmes to ensure that households don’t fall into hunger when prices rise or harvests fail.

2. Act on climate change:

• commit to a reduction of at least 40 per cent of developed country emissions by 2020 in order to keep temperatures below the danger zone of a 1.5C increase in temperatures;
• increase their climate financing pledges to cover the minimum US$200 billion needed annually in developing countries, ensure their funding is new money i.e. additional to the aid budget.