This June marks the 20^th anniversary of UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (Rio Summit). This year, with Rio+20, we have a chance to really shape how we reduce poverty, advance social equity and protect the environment on an even more crowded planet – to get the future we want.

One of the key themes of Rio+20 is achieving food security in a changing climate and with increasing population. UN agencies such as FAO along with the private sector, NGOs and other groups are all contributing ideas to a joint political document urging world leaders to change their policies. 

Many publications and statements are published for Rio+20, but one that caught the eyes of the EndingHunger team was a report “Achieving food security in the face of climate change” from a research organization known as CGIAR. The report calls for a united approach to tackling hunger and says the global community must operate within three limits. The limits are: (1) the quantity of food that can be produced, (2) the quantity needed by a growing population, and (3) the effects of food production on the climate. This would create a “safe space” whereascurrently, we are operating outside this space and pushing nearly a billion to chronic hunger. But despair not, a set of concrete policy actions to transform the food system are also listed in the report.

If you don’t have time to read the full report but want to understand the essence, the video is ideal. If you are curious about the impact you’re making on the earth’s ecosystem, check out this interactive carbon map, also produced by CGIAR.