Information Analysis

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214. Impact of Climate on Children's Dietary Diversity

Dietary diversity is important especially for children in order to provide the essential nutrients including micronutrients for growth. However, until now, there is very little empirical research and evidence to demonstrate the relationship between dietary diversity and climate change. In a paper published in Environmental Research Letters in January 2021, the authors found that warming temperatures and increasing rainfall variability have profound short- and long-term impacts on children's dietary diversity, potentially undermining development interventions towards improving food security. 

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213. The Need for Climate Change Adaptation Measures

On January 14, 2021, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) published the Adaptation Gap Report 2020, providing updates on the progress of climate change adaptation measures and the actions required. As climate change progresses, there is an increasing need for countries to take climate change adaptation measures as well as climate change mitigation measures. By taking adaptation measures, it is possible to avoid a serious crisis in the future, and the benefits are said to exceed the cost of implementing adaptation measures.

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212. Year 2020 Ties With 2016 as the Warmest in History

On January 8, 2021, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service announced that the year 2021 tied with 2016 as the warmest year in history, and 2011-2020 as the warmest decade recorded. In 2020, despite the La Nina phenomenon which has the cooling effect, the temperature was pushed by the strong El Nino phenomenon which has a temperature rise effect, and matched the warmest temperature ever recorded in 2016. 

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211. The Need for Planetary Health Diplomacy

In January 2021, The Lancet Planetary Health published a commentary entitled "Planetary Health Diplomacy: A Call for Action". In the recovery from the pandemic, the participation of experts in international relations involved in the formulation and implementation of strategic policies for planetary health is requested in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs.

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210. Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Effects of the New Coronavirus

Social distancing saves people's lives and at the same time imposes large costs on society as a whole due to the decline in economic activities. The Copenhagen Consensus Center, a think tank that researches and publishes the smartest solutions to the world’s biggest problems, conducted a rapid cost-benefit analysis of moderate social distancing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. The report assessed the opportunity costs of different strategies to lessen the impact of the pandemic.

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209. Nature’s Contributions to Mankind

A paper published in PNAS showed that understanding nature’s contributions to people and monitoring their benefits are crucial in improving our ability to manage earth systems efficiently, equitably and sustainably. The paper reviewed the impact of the progress of environmental degradation over the last 50 years on human quality of life, and noted a declining trend in the potential for nature to contribute in the majority of material, nonmaterial and regulating contributions assessed.

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208. Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit 2021 Update

The Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit 2021 (N4G) will be held in December 2021. This summit is an initiative to promote international efforts to resolve malnutrition in conjunction with the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This time, Japan will be the host starting with the launch of "Nutrition for Growth Year of Action" in December 2020 with events throughout the year leading up to the summit.

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207. Towards Agricultural Resilience -Climate Change and the New Coronavirus -

The latest issue of ARDEC, the information magazine of the Overseas Agricultural and Development Center, Japanese Institute of Irrigation and Drainage (JIID), focused on the impact of climate change and the new coronavirus in agricultural resilience.

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206. Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Country and Economic Sector

The World Resources Institute has published an interactive chart that shows a comparison of greenhouse gas emissions by country and economic sector. According to the data, the top 10 emitting countries, that include Japan, which ranks 6th, account for over two-thirds of global GHG emissions and play a key role to successfully fight climate change.

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205. Welcoming 2021

Exactly a year ago, the genome of SARS-CoV-2 was sequenced in China, wildfires peaked in Australia, and East Africa was exposed to the desert locust onslaught. As the world welcomes 2021, the coronavirus pandemic has not subsided at all, and the recovery of the world economy will depend on effectiveness of the vaccine. In contrast, there is no silver bullet like a vaccine for climate change, and every country is required to take concrete technical and institutional measures.

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204. The Year 2020 in Retrospect

In 2020, there were many events that supported the need for timely collection and dissemination of information such as desert locust, new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) pandemic, frequent extreme weather due to climate change, and international trends regarding greenhouse gas emission reduction. In particular, COVID-19 is a strategic direction for technological development and intervention from the perspective of avoiding climate change and biodiversity loss and ensuring global food and nutrition security, as artificial economic activities are undermining the health of humankind and the planet.

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203. International Year of Fruits and Vegetables 2021

The United Nations has set the International Year on important themes that need to be addressed on a global scale and calls for action on issues to be considered. The year 2021 is designated as the International Year of Peace and Trust, the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, the International Year of Eradication of Child Labor, and the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables.

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202. COVID-19 Recovery and Leapfrog Food System Transformation in Africa

In December 2020, CGIAR's Dr. Kundhavi Kadiresan published an article entitled "How Africa can lead the world in the COVID-19 recovery", and suggested that Africa can build greater resistance to global shocks, leapfrogging other regions by transforming the food system that the entire continent and the world has outgrown.

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201. Reducing meat consumption as a measure against climate change requires a different approach in developing countries

Researchers at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) published a paper in the Environmental Research Letters and cautioned that recommendations for reducing consumption of animal foods, including meat, as a measure against climate change may not be the applicable in low- and middle-income countries. While meat consumption is still low in developing countries, there is plenty of room for livestock production to contribute to improving farmers' income and nutrition, as well as soil fertility.

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200. Human Development and the Anthropocene-How Humans Are Affecting the Earth

In December 2020, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) published the Human Development Report, The Next Frontier – Human Development and the Anthropocene, to commemorate its 30th anniversary. The report proposed the Planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI), to take into account carbon dioxide emissions and their material footprint in each country in the integrated index of health, education and living standards in each country.

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199. Food System Innovation and SDG Trade-offs

A paper published in The Lancet Planetary Health in December 2020 discussed the trade-off between food system innovation and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Emerging trade-offs must be addressed, particularly those involving social aspects like inequality and social justice, in order to achieve true sustainability.

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198. Recommendations on Transforming the Agri-food Systems

A paper published in Nature Sustainability in December 2020 (Bundling innovations to transform agri-food systems) stated that multiple innovations must be combined to address the transformation of agri-food systems.

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197. Sale of Cultured Meat Approved for the First Time

Last month, the sale of cultured meat has been approved for the first time in the world. Cultured meat is meat artificially produced by tissue culture of cells and can therefore reduce the environmental load as compared to livestock. In addition, it can be produced under strict hygienic management and does not require the slaughter of animals. The approval by the Singapore Food Agency on the sale of chicken cultivated in a bioreactor by a US company Eat Just is a milestone for the food industry.

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196. Diversity Loss and COVID-19

The loss of diversity creates opportunities for new pandemics. A paper published in Science of the Total Environment attributed the development of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 to the loss of human, biological and geochemical diversity, and emphasized the need for diversity conservation and interdisciplinary research efforts in order to address future global diseases.

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195. Towards Sustainable Use of the Ocean

Although the ocean occupies 71% of the Earth's surface, it has long been neglected in the global environmental policy processes. In response to this situation, the prime ministers of Norway and Palau convened the leaders of 14 countries, including Japan, to set up a high-level panel to protect the benefits that humankind has enjoyed from the marine environment.