Natural capital investments are pivotal to address food security in Asia and the Pacific, the ADB says
In Asia and the Pacific region, record price spikes in food and fuel are pushing ever more low-income families into extreme poverty. This poses the substantial risk of making the group of roughly 300 million hungry people living in the region even wider. The food crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
"A perfect storm"
Food price inflation is bringing many developing member countries helped by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to their knees. Still, the multilateral lender is talking about a “perfect storm” because of the long-term challenges contributing to making food unaffordable for vulnerable people. The main driver is climate change and its impact on agricultural production.
The ADB is urging to engage in natural capital investments. The Asian bank 2021 raised its ambition for climate finance spending to a cumulative 100 billion dollar between 2019 and 2030 and set the adoption of nature-based solutions and the production of sustainable food as the main goals of its action. With this approach, the ADB is developing an