New Delhi: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Friday warned of ‘catastrophe’ because of the growing shortage of food around the globe. The UN head attributed the reason for food shortage to disruptions caused by climate change, pandemic and inequality to produce. He also said that Russia-Ukraine conflict is adding to the “unprecedented global hunger crisis” affecting hundreds of millions of people.
“There is a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022,” he said in a video message to officials from dozens of rich and developing countries gathered in Berlin, reported news agency Associated Press. “And 2023 could be even worse,” added Guterres.
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Concerns of food crisis
He pointed out that harvests across Asia, Africa and the Americas will be impacted as farmers globally struggle to cope with rising fertilizer and energy prices. Stating that no country will be immune to the social and economic repercussions of such a catastrophe, he said, “This year’s food access issues could become next year’s global food shortage.” UN negotiators have been trying to make a deal that would enable Ukraine to export food, including via the Black Sea while allowing Russia to bring food and fertilizer to world markets without restrictions.
He appealed for debt relief for poor countries to help them stay afloat and private sector to help stabilise global food markets. German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock, who hosted the Berlin meeting said Moscow’s claim that Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were to blame for food shortages was “completely untenable,” reported AP.
She pointed out that Russia exported as much wheat in May and June this year as in the same months of 2021. She echoed Guterres’ comments that several factors underlie the growing hunger crisis around the world.
“But it was Russia’s war of attack against Ukraine that turned a wave into a tsunami,” Baerbock said. On the other hand, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that Russia has no excuse for holding back vital goods from world markets.
“The sanctions that we’ve imposed on Russia collectively and with many other countries exempt food, exempt food products, exempt fertilizers, exempt insurers, exempt shippers,” he said, as reported by AP.