
Nel trimestre luglio-settembre 2017 sono quasi 26mila gli articoli segnalati dalla nostra piattaforma di analisi, impostata per monitorare i temi della sostenibilità alimentare e degli Obiettivi 2030 per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile (Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs).
Complessivamente il tema del cambiamento climatico ha raccolto, da solo, ben i due terzi del totale delle segnalazioni (17.393). I temi principali ad esso connessi che hanno registrato il maggior numero di citazioni sono:- 1. il riscaldamento globale (Global Warming), visto come il più importante fenomeno dei cambiamenti climatici in atto;
- 2. i nomi di alcuni Paesi/continenti (United States, Africa) tra i più colpiti dai fenomeni provocati dai cambiamenti climatici o da altri disastrosi eventi naturali (Mexico, vittima del terremoto dell’8 settembre scorso);
- 3. il presidente degli Stati Uniti Donald Trump, sia come leader di uno dei Paesi vittime degli uragani della scorsa estate, sia in quanto impegnato nella revisione della politica ambientale seguita dalle Amministrazioni precedenti (su questo si veda meglio il Food Sustainability Report n. 2).
Una curiosità: fra le parole più citate c’è Al Gore in quanto il 19 luglio, a New York, si è avuta la prima del suo documentario di ispirazione ambientalista “An inconvenient sequel, truth to the power” dedicato al tema della nuova, imminente, “rivoluzione energetica”. La pellicola segue di dieci anni l’opera prima dell’ex vicepresidente Usa, il documentario di impronta ecologista “An inconvenient truth”, dedicato al tema del riscaldamento globale e vincitore del premio Oscar 2006.
Un’altra delle parole legate al tema del cambiamento climatico è “Sea Level Rise”. Il fenomeno dell’innalzamento del livello degli oceani è tornato - com’era prevedibile - al centro dell’attenzione dopo gli eventi meteorologici estremi verificatisi nelle ultime settimane. Il dibattito che ne è scaturito ha riportato l’attenzione sul rapporto tra acqua e cambiamenti climatici e sulle politiche da intraprendere ai fini della corretta gestione della risorsa idrica, sempre più preziosa per il Pianeta.
“Una gestione corretta dell’acqua - afferma il presidente della OECD Water Governance Initiative, Peter Glas - è la chiave per lo sviluppo dei Paesi e dei territori, per la crescita economica e per il benessere delle persone”.
Continua Glas: “La Water Governance Initiative è un network internazionale che comprende diverse realtà dei settori pubblico, privato e non-profit di molti Paesi appartenenti all’Ocse o ad essa esterni, Organizzazioni non governative e accademici. Abbiamo sviluppato principi, set di indicatori, buone pratiche allo scopo di condividerli”. L'acqua, conclude il presidente della Water Governance Initiative, “deve avere un ruolo centrale nello sviluppo urbano, nella pianificazione della città, negli investimenti, nelle infrastrutture. Sono convinto che se si mette l'acqua al centro dei progetti, il resto arriva da solo”.
Marta Antonelli, Research Programme Manager BCFN, intervenendo al citato forum internazionale “Regole dell’acqua, regole per la vita” ha ricordato quanto le scelte alimentari siano importanti per un consumo razionale della risorsa idrica: “Optare per un regime alimentare di tipo vegetariano a scapito di una dieta ricca di carne riduce fino a 2.000 litri di acqua al giorno il consumo di acqua virtuale, vale a dire dell’acqua ‘incorporata’ nei cibi in quanto necessaria per produrli”.
A livello globale, continua Antonelli, “tra agricoltura, industrie e famiglie, è il settore agricolo a consumare più acqua: in media il 70% del prelievo totale di acqua dolce è destinato all’irrigazione, mentre l’industria ne consuma il 22% e il restante 8% è dedicato all’uso domestico. E il peso dell’agricoltura è ancora più alto nei Paesi a medio e basso reddito, dove il consumo raggiunge anche il 95% del totale ed è caratterizzato da molte inefficienze”.
Riccardo Valentini, membro dell'Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change - IPCC, il Comitato per i mutamenti climatici delle Nazioni Unite che nel 2007 ha ricevuto il premio Nobel per la pace, focalizza l’attenzione sull’Italia: “Quando pensiamo al nostro cibo non ci chiediamo mai quanta acqua sia servita per produrlo. È una domanda che invece dobbiamo porci, perché ci sono alimenti, come la carne rossa, che richiedono moltissima acqua e altri, come i vegetali, che la utilizzano molto meno. In termini di riduzione della propria impronta idrica (il volume totale dell’acqua necessaria per produrre un bene/servizio) l’agricoltura italiana ha ampi margini di miglioramento, poiché gli alimenti che oggi produce comportano complessivamente un utilizzo elevato della risorsa idrica. Occorre indirizzarsi verso un’agricoltura più sostenibile”.
FOOD SUSTAINABILITY INDEX
ACQUA IN AGRICOLTURA:
I PAESI CHE LA UTILIZZANO MEGLIO (E QUELLI CHE LO FANNO PEGGIO)
A che punto è oggi il Pianeta nella gestione razionale dell’acqua? E soprattutto come viene utilizzata la risorsa idrica dall’agricoltura che, come detto, consuma da sola quasi i tre quarti di tutta l’acqua disponibile? La risposta viene dal Food Sustainability Index, realizzato da BCFN ed Economist Intelligence Unit, uno strumento che redige e aggiorna una classifica di 25 grandi Paesi del mondo - pari a oltre i due terzi della popolazione mondiale e all’87% del PIL globale - in base alla sostenibilità del loro sistema alimentare.
La classifica viene stilata utilizzando un set di 58 indicatori, di cui 4 si riferiscono all’utilizzo sostenibile della risorsa idrica in agricoltura: Environmental impact of agriculture on water, Sustainability of water withdrawal, Water scarcity, Water management (il punteggio va da 0 a 100 e più è basso, più indica una situazione di criticità).
- GERMANIA 88.38
- COLOMBIA 86.07
- UK 85.63
- CANADA 81.32
- SUD COREA 79.35
- INDONESIA 45.86
- SUD AFRICA 42.08
- ARABIA SAUDITA 34.64
- EGITTO 20.45
- INDIA 16.87
Hot topics
- CLIMATE CHANGE: Global Warming, Harvey, Donald Trump
- FOOD SECURITY: Africa, FAO, Nutrition
- SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: Water, Biodiversity, Poor Countries
Internally displaced continue to be among the most vulnerable in Somalia as a drastic increase in displacement this year due to drought is putting additional strain on scarce resources in existing and new internal displaced settlements, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) says.
About 2,500 years ago, the Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt the “Gift of the Nile." Today, urban sprawl and changing agricultural practices - due in part to Egypt’s Aswan Dam that allows for year-long irrigation - have caused groundwater problems along the Nile.
Kenya has been ravaged by what the United Nations calls the worst drought since the 2011 Horn of Africa food crisis that led to famine in parts of Somalia. The number of children in need of life-saving aid continues to grow amid one of most punishing droughts in years.
Extra farmland more than one and a half times the size of London will have to be cultivated to grow the food needed for the capital’s booming population by 2031, according to new analysis. The figures reveal the huge resources that will be necessary.
Senior government officials from across Asia have been meeting in Bangkok in the first-ever Asia-Pacific Ministerial Summit on the Environment to answer this question: how can we use our resources more efficiently to continue to grow our economies in a manner that does not tax our natural environment?
The Brazilian president Michel Temer has abolished an Amazonian reserve the size of Denmark, prompting concerns of an influx of mineral companies, road-builders and workers into the species-rich forest. The dissolution of the Renca reserve was opposed by the Sustainability Network party.
Toxins from manure and fertiliser pouring into waterways are exacerbating huge, harmful algal blooms that create oxygen-deprived stretches of the gulf, the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay, according to a new report by Mighty, an environmental group chaired by former congressman Henry Waxman.
Mongolia has suspended grain exports with as much as a third of its farmland suffering from severe drought after temperatures last month rose to the highest in more than half a century, agricultural officials said.
The weather has always been an unpredictable element of agriculture, but climate change is expected to make matters significantly worse. A new study says climate-induced drought could hit several of the world's major corn producing regions all at once.
Significant progress has been achieved in reducing the impacts of waste generation on the environment and human health. The challenge for the future is both continuing this progress especially related to the relatively high amounts of untreated waste still landfilled in many EU Member States.
Claire Perry, Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry said: “Since 1990 we have cut emissions by more than a third while growing the economy by two thirds, and the Government is determined to drive up the pace of decarbonisation while maximising the opportunities for growth from the global transition to a clean economy.”
The European Commission is hosting a workshop on sustainable urban strategies as part of Regions and Cities European Week, on 11th October 2017, in Brussels, Belgium. The workshop focuses on the question, ‘How can we set long-term sustainable urban strategies within the framework of short-term political cycles?’
UK government recommendations on nutrition have been fairly constant over the years. The only recent significant changes were in 2015 when maximum sugar recommendations were halved and fibre ones increased. Those changes were made following a thorough analysis of hundreds of high-quality studies.
The Commission is seeking views on how the EU's food supply chain could be made fairer for farmers and small businesses and how unfair trading practices could be addressed. Stakeholders have until 17 November to contribute to the online public consultation.
Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane says strengthened partnerships are crucial to meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda 2030. The Minister said key to the attainment of the SDGs is financing water security.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced 32 grants totaling $16.8 million to help Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants increase their purchases of fruits and vegetables.
Smart farming lets farmers tailor the use of fertiliser, pesticides, fodder and water to their specific crops and livestock. This helps to lower the environmental impact of agriculture, while increasing farms’ competitiveness. Smart farming also creates new business opportunities.
In September 2013, the Parliament of India passed the National Food Security Act (NFSA) that made ‘right to food’ a legal entitlement for approximately three-quarters of the rural population and half of the urban population of India. A first evaluation of the impact of NFSA.
An EU-funded project has developed new modelling tools to better forecast the impact of extreme weather on agricultural production in Europe and beyond - important for protecting the global food supply.
The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has been active in the region since 2010. A new publication captures a wide spectrum of stories within the domains of climate change, agriculture and food security.
At the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) first Sustainable Development Impact Summit last week in New York, several of the discussions focused on how today's tech revolution - the so called Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) - can create a better, cleaner and safer world.
On the occasion of the International Symposium on Food Security and Nutrition in the Age of Climate Change, they have signed an agreement with the overall goal of strengthening capacities for improving food security and nutrition through mitigation and adaptation to changing climatic conditions.
During a High-level Event held on the margins of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly, the heads of FAO, IFAD, WFP and other partners have urged the international community to renew its commitment towards reducing food waste.
After steadily declining for over a decade, global hunger is on the rise again, affecting 815 million people in 2016, or 11 per cent of the global population, says a new edition of the annual United Nations report on world food security and nutrition.
The world is facing one of its largest humanitarian crises since 1945 with millions of people facing the threat of starvation and famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria. This number is expected to further increase, according to a report by the Global Network against Food Crises.
“None should imagine that the state of sanitation and coral reefs are anything but directly connected,” Mr. Thomson said, delivering the keynote address at special event in Stockholm to start World Water Week. “It makes no sense to consider terrestrial environmental issues, fresh water challenges or climate change in isolation.”
After one of the wettest winters on record, Governor Jerry Brown announced in April that the drought had ended. But situation remains grim, says Rios, 80, who lives in rural Madera County in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
The World Bank is providing financing for water-scarce cities to share their management knowledge, while the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has set up a public-private partnership to improve industrial and municipal water management practices.
The estimated cost for achieving SDGs them is $5-7 trillion per year. The UN called on a powerful private sector tool to step up to ensure that they can be implemented: it’s the capital market finance. How can the capital markets be engaged? What kind of capital is needed to achieve zero hunger? And which categories of investors are best placed to provide it?
Agriculture is expected to face increasing water risks that can be mitigated with targeted policy actions on water hotspots. This report presents a mitigation policy action plan. The People’s Republic of China, India and the United States are identified as countries facing the greatest water risks for agriculture production globally.
How to overcome market failures was once the key question underlying development research. A primary conclusion of this research was that governments had to step in to resolve these market failures, for example by providing free public services or protecting infant industries.
While hunger and malnutrition are still clearly major problems in Africa, research from the Malabo Montpellier Panel shows that several countries are starting to win the battle for better nutrition outcomes.
This year’s edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World marks the beginning of a new era in monitoring the progress made towards achieving a world without hunger and malnutrition, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
A new study outlines the serious toll that poor nutrition can have on our well-being, and in some cases that even means death. In fact, about one in five deaths around the world in 2016 can be attributed to poor diet, making this one of the biggest killers, according to the study, “The Global Burden of Disease.”
Researchers spent six years developing a heating device capable of heating the ocean. Their findings were released in the journal Current Biology, and suggest that even this tiny shift could have a big impact on the local ecosystem.
This book is devoted to the complex relationship between the global trading system and food security, focusing on two important elements: the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and how food price volatility can be managed, or not, through trade instruments.
Harmful algal blooms known to pose risks to human and environmental health in large freshwater reservoirs and lakes are projected to increase because of climate change, according to a team of researchers led by a Tufts University scientist.
If we do nothing, growing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide from emissions will seriously impair the nutritional value of wheat, rice and other staple crops, putting millions of people around the world in danger of protein deficiency, according to new research published in the journal in Environmental Health Perspectives.
A detailed report in the latest New England Journal of Medicine is winning alarmed attention in Washington because it finds that American children and adults are leading the obesity parade.
MILIARDI DI PERSONE AL MONDO NON HANNO ABBASTANZA ACQUA DISPONIBILE. CHE FARE?
L'acqua non è solo un problema nel caso di eventi estremi, come siccità o inondazioni. La disponibilità della risorsa idrica è un problema strutturale, che riguarda tutte le zone del Pianeta ma che impatta drammaticamente sui Paesi più poveri provocando una serie di conseguenze economiche e sociali, compresa la migrazione di quote significative di popolazione.
In occasione della World Water Week tenutasi dal 27 agosto al 1° settembre a Stoccolma, per iniziativa dello Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), la World Bank ha presentato lo studio “Reducing Inequalities in Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene in the Era of the Sustainable Development Goals”, secondo il quale “milioni di persone nel mondo sono lasciate indietro a causa dell’impossibilità ad accedere a una quantità sufficiente di acqua pulita”.
Abbiamo sempre nuovi aggiornamenti, studi e progetti per te!
Continua a seguire gli approfondimenti sullo sviluppo sostenibile e scopri di più sul rapporto tra cibo, salute e ambiente.
Iscriviti alla Newsletter di Fondazione BCFN