How Trade Changes With Climate Change?
More and more vertical trade flows, which from the North point to the South of the world. Climate change will impoverish an already starving South
Food trade around the world will be impacted by climate change. This was stated by scientists and economists who signed the last FAO report, released these days. After studying the relationship between climate and food systems for years, the organization’s experts concluded that agriculture is highly dependent on local weather conditions, which are in turn influenced by climate and its changes.
But that’s not all: if global warming brings about imbalances on the climate system that will affect agricultural production, so will the increase in population expected throughout this century.
The growing threat of climate change to world food supply and the challenges for food security and nutrition policies require urgent concerted action.
FAO
Among the effects that climate change has observed, there is the reduction of the nutritional properties of some foods. A higher concentration of carbon decreases the amount of zinc, iron and proteins, increases the starch and sugar content in crops essential for global sustenance such as wheat and rice.
The problem that nobody wants to see is that of meat, closely linked to that of water. Raising animals involves the use of water resources in huge volumes. The abandonment of farming could make it possible to feed billions of people around the world.
According to FAO, the trading system will shape itself in relation to climate change. The direction of trade flows will be increasingly unidirectional: from medium-high latitudes to medium-low latitudes. The industrialized North will sell to the hungry South, unable to produce due to enemy weather conditions. In addition, extreme events such as droughts and cyclones can disrupt transport and supply chains, experts say.
The study stresses that trade cannot and should not be the only adaptation strategy , nor should it stand in the way of mitigation goals. The priority is to implement adaptation measures at national level. It is not enough to reorient trade flows, because the South would become a slave to imports.