Converging Insecurities: Food, water, energy, health and biosecurity, all amplified by climate change

Abstract

Food security interacts with water security, energy security, biosecurity and health security in multiple, overlapping ways. Tensions and trade-offs abound, leavened by occasional synergies. All are made more challenging by climate change: shifting baselines, increasing volatility, altering distributions of species, vectors and diseases, and amplifying extremes. Policy responses to climate change – for example decarbonisation and the energy transition – and short-term responses to extreme weather events can also be in tension with long-term food, water, energy and health security objectives.

This paper argues that it is increasingly unhelpful to think about these issues separately, and especially to develop policy or even research and innovation in silos. To have any hope of adding value, a national food security strategy needs to be deeply intertwined with consideration of water security, energy security (and the profound, inexorable transition away from fossil fuels), biosecurity and health security. It also needs to anticipate likely and possible long-term impacts of climate change, and in turn contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

We need new, more integrated approaches to develop and implement policies more tuned to the exigencies of this century, and especially to ensure that we are deploying all our tools and capabilities effectively. Show more