Citation: Kioumarsi, H., Alidoust Pahmedani, M., & Sagar, A. (2025). Net-Zero Objectives and Food Security under Climate Change. Springer Nature Communities. https://go.nature.com/4slJRGm
Introduction
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are a relevant framework that can be applied to a number of scientific disciplines, such as agriculture, medical science, and food science. This is an area that needs greater emphasis and further consideration. Ensuring global food security together with a mitigation of climate change is considered one of the biggest challenges of this century. Food production and food chains remain key to human survival and development. There is a direct link between achieving SDG2: Zero Hunger and food production. At the same time, food production and chains remain responsible for a considerable amount of global emissions.
The Climate-Food Security Linkage
Climate change is altering weather conditions, exacerbating droughts, floods, heatwaves, and extreme weather-related events. Such changes damage agricultural production and food systems, putting millions of people at risk of food insecurity and malnutrition. Between 2019 and 2022, there was an almost tripling of acute food insecurity cases due to climatic changes, conflict, and pandemic-related global lockdowns.
Farming's exposure is explicit: roughly 80% of global crop production depends on rainfall and responds strongly to weather variability. Increased variability can cut yields, threaten food security, and undermine rural livelihoods especially in low-income countries.
Meanwhile, food systems — from farming and processing to transport and waste — emit approximately one-third of worldwide emissions. Thus, climate and food goals are tightly linked: progress in one area influences the other.
Net-Zero Targets
Lately, there has been an uptick in net-zero commitments from countries, corporations, and international organizations alike. They promise to reach a balance between greenhouse gas emissions and removals by mid-century through mitigating measures such as the use of renewables, gains in efficiency, and carbon capture.
Specifically, initiatives now focus on agriculture. The UN's “Net-Zero Food Plan,” announced at COP28, aims to transform agrifood systems into carbon sinks by 2050. The focus is on livestock, land, water, crops, and diets for emission reduction, while enhancing food security and nutrition. Modeling indicates sharp emission drops via better methods, sequestration, and diet shifts, though full net-zero remains challenging.
Conflicts and Challenges
Strategies for net-zero are frequently contradicting food security, especially through a conflict over land use when forestation or biofuel production competes with food production, hence increasing food prices while failing to increase output. Reducing greenhouse gases could mean that people limit meat consumption when they are rich, thus triggering a conflict of desires.
Pathways to Alignment and Mutual Gains
Climate-resilient approaches such as precision ag and adaptive crops increase outputs, mitigate pollution, and contribute to SDG2 and SDG13. Sustainable transitions minimize wastage, improve value chains, and enhance low-carbon eating. Mobilizing climate finances for resilient ag sets off wins, together with policies such as carbon pricing and access assurances. Climate actions strengthen water conservation, nutrition , and gender parity.
References
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