Before the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), when the Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition (I-CAN) was formally launched by the Government of Egypt, the worlds of nutrition and climate were relative strangers.
The premise of I-CAN is that greater integration of climate thinking, planning, action and finance can open up new opportunities for climate and nutrition action leading to accelerated improvement in outcomes for both. The potential is clear from the companion I-CAN paper 'Climate Action and Nutrition: Pathways to Impact', led by FAO. But how do we assess current levels of integration and opportunities to strengthen it? That is where this baseline report comes in. It assesses integration and identifies opportunities to act jointly. The bad news in its results is that in general, climate and nutrition are not well connected.
The good news is that there are plenty of exceptions, with room for much greater connection and therefore greater action.
This report encourages policymakers and scholars in the fields of climate and nutrition to think holistically about inherent connections between their work. Ample opportunities for increasing impact exist, but we are not currently leveraging them.
Only 13 of them have been analysed in this report due to data availabilities, feasibility, and relevance.
This executive summary lays out an overview of key findings in each area and recommendations for moving forwards. Results are published on a global or regional level to give an overview of the current state of action, rather than to assess individual countries or organizations.
Further data from our analysis can be made available upon request.