India is among the countries which are at the greatest risk of food insecurity due to weather extremes caused by climate change, a global study suggests.
Researchers led by the University of Exeter in the U.K. examined how climate change could affect the vulnerability of different countries to food insecurity, when people lack access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.
The study, published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A , looked at 122 developing and least-developed countries, mostly in Asia, Africa and South America. The countries at the greatest vulnerability to food insecurity caused by a temperature spike of 2 degrees Celsius global are Oman, India, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Brazil, researchers said.
Deleterious impact
“Climate change is expected to lead to more extremes of both heavy rainfall and drought, with different effects in different parts of the world,” said Richard Betts, a professor at the University of Exeter.
“Such weather extremes can increase vulnerability to food insecurity,” said Mr. Betts.
Warming is expected to lead to wetter conditions, with floods putting food production at risk.
Wetter conditions are expected to have the biggest impact in south and east Asia, with the most extreme projections suggesting the flow of the river Ganga could more than double at 2 degrees Celsius global warming.
