Climate change threatens the world's food supply.

Floods and droughts brought on by climate change make it harder to produce food. As a result, the price of food increases, and access becomes more and more limited, putting many at higher risk of hunger.

Undernutrition is the largest health impact of climate change in the 21st century. The number of undernourished people in the world has been increasing since 2014, reaching nearly 821 million  — a staggering 11 percent of the entire global population — in 2017. The vast majority live in developing countries — research  shows hunger to be particularly on the rise in South America and almost every region in Africa. More than 30% of people in eastern Africa faced hunger in 2017.

Much of the increase is linked to the growing number of conflicts, which are often exacerbated by climate-related shocks. According to the 2019 Global Report on Food Crises, more than 113 million people in 53 countries were plunged into crisis levels of hunger in 2018; two-thirds of them were in places affected by conflict or insecurity. And climate and natural disasters alone triggered food crises for an additional 29 million people — mostly in Africa — with shocks such as drought leaving them in need of urgent assistance.

Fati, 8, lives in an area of Niger where food insecurity driven by land degradation and unseasonable rainfall has been made worse by nearby conflict that has displaced people and disrupted market activity. “We fight every day to keep having something to eat,” says Fati’s mother, Hani. Photo: Ezra Millstein/Mercy Corps