Climate change contributes to humanitarian crises worldwide, with climate-related disasters driving increased levels of risk and vulnerability. In 2023, of the 15 countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis, 12 had an internationally led humanitarian response.
The climate crisis is putting nutrition at risk; across the life cycle, across all forms of malnutrition, and across all regions. Available evidence points towards a significant negative association between extreme climate events and a child’s nutritional status. Climate shocks involving excessive rainfall, extreme temperatures and/or drought are among the risk factors for child wasting. Seasonality, and shifts in seasonal weather patterns, are also critical factors that affected livelihoods, production, movement, and the availability of food and appropriate nutrition.
The Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC) plays a crucial role in addressing this crisis within its humanitarian mandate, focusing on climate, weather shocks and seasonality shifts because of their impact on nutrition outcomes and their underlying causes. The GNC also considers environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions in its climate crisis work, given how environmental degradation exacerbates vulnerabilities and the climate crisis.
Climate Crisis Working Group
Following the launch of the GNC’s 2022-2025 Strategy, climate was recognized as a priority cross-cutting theme requiring additional technical support for country nutrition clusters and sectors. In response, the GNC Climate Crisis Workstream was launched in April 2022 and formalised into a GNC Cross-cutting Working Group in September 2023.
Foundational members of the working group include the GNC CT, the GNC Programme Team, UNICEF, WFP and Action Against Hunger. Subsequently, representatives from other organisations have also joined the group, including UN Nutrition, ENN, French Red Cross, Climate Action Accelerator, Colombia University (Climate School), West Africa Regional Group on Climate & NiE and the South Sudan Nutrition Cluster. The GNC Climate Working Group is currently chaired by WFP and the GNC.
The Climate Crisis Working Group provides an important platform for exchanging ideas, generating learning and defining an NiE and climate approach for the sector. The Working Group has developed a workplan for 2024 articulated around mainstreaming climate into GNC services, evidence generation, advocacy and guidance. These activities are grouped around five key areas which are listed below.
Key Activities
- Integrating an NIE climate lens into current approaches for nutrition risk analysis, preparedness and anticipatory actions.
- Socialisation and evidence exchange on climate and nutrition pathways and their implications for NiE programming and coordination.
- Climate and environmental justice, anti-oppression and localisation, including generating analysis to further advocacy initiatives in this space.
- Supporting knowledge exchange and collation of experiences related to NiE climate mitigation, including dimensions related to recipes for wasting treatment/supplementation, ready-to-use food packaging, supply chains, storage and waste management.
- Supporting the GNC to mainstream climate into its operational support services to nutrition practitioners.
See below for some useful links. We will update featured resources shortly, so check back here often.
Useful links
- COP28 Coffee Chat – what does it mean for Nutrition in Emergencies Practitioners?
- GNC Climate Crisis Scoping Review Report (placeholder)
- GNC Climate Crisis Scoping Review Summary (coming soon)
- Climate Working Group ToR
- Climate Working Group Workplan for 2024