Global Hunger to Rise with Global Temperatures, Oxfam Report Suggests

A hotter world is a hungrier world, according to a report warning that climate change could leave millions more hungry and malnourished in coming decades.

The paper, issued by the charity Oxfam, argues that the threat of climate change on food security is "much broader" than generally examined, "hitting incomes, food quality and human health in ways that are not yet well understood."

The cycle laid out in the report of declining yields and food quality leading to rising food prices is one that could cause anywhere between a 10 percent to 20 percent rise in the number of people at risk of hunger by 2050. Currently, one in eight of the world's population is going hungry even as the demand for food continues to rise, Oxfam reports.

A previous study issued by the organization estimates that the average price of staple foods will likely double within the next 20 years compared to trend prices. At least half of these increases, according to Oxfam, can be blamed on climate change.

The report comes as scientists from across the globe are preparing to release the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report, which is due out Friday. According to a draft of the report leaked by The Associated Press in August, the panel of experts believe the likelihood that human activities are the main cause of global warming since the 1950s is 95 percent.

"Just as the evidence of man-made climate change is becoming stronger, so too is our understanding of how it hits people, especially around hunger," Tim Gore, head of policy for Oxfam's GROW campaign, said in a statement. "We've long known that climate change will mean lost crops, but increasingly we're seeing its impacts through higher food prices, lower earnings, more health problems and lower quality food too."

As evidence, the Oxfam paper highlights several events major climate events over the last couple of years that have negatively affected food supply.

The 2012 drought in Russia, for example, cut the grain harvest by nearly 25 percent, resulting in a steep rise in the price of grain and bread. Pakistan's devastating 2010 flood, meanwhile, destroyed over 570,000 hectares of crop land in Punjab, affecting more than 20 million people and destroying some 80 percent of food reserves, Oxfam reports. Furthermore, the affected area experienced a 75 percent reduction in income across all households.

"We want a world in which everyone enjoys the right to enough affordable and nutritious food, and we cannot allow climate change to throw us off course," Gore said. "Leaders listening to the latest findings from climate scientists this week must remember that a hot world is a hungry world. They must take urgent action to slash emissions and direct more resources to building a sustainable food system."