The Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition released its latest policy brief on June 29, entitled “COVID-19: safeguarding food systems and promoting healthy diets". The Global Panel is a group of international leaders actively involved in nutritional improvement, helping low- and middle-income countries develop evidence-based nutrition policies.

On June 30, 2020, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Bertelsmann Foundation published the Sustainable Development Report 2020, which contains the 2020 SDG indicators and dashboards. In addition to a comprehensive analysis of the current state of each index towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, this report also covers a past history, forecasts for 2030, and SDG outlook amidst the COVID-19 among193 member countries of the United Nations.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced that the rising temperature since the 19th century has accelerated further since 2000, with 2020 expected to be the hottest year in history. A paper published in Nature Climate Change (Clem et al.) also reported that over the past 30 years, Antarctica has experienced record warming more than three times the global average.

JIRCAS conducts extensive research to improve technologies related to agriculture, forestry and fisheries in developing countries in the tropical and subtropical regions, in order to contribute in solving the global food and environmental problems and ensuring stable supply of agriculture, forestry and fishery products. We have summarized our recent research results and achievements in the ‘JIRCAS Research Dashboard’ which is now open to the public through our website. It is currently available in Japanese only.

In June 2020, the journal Science of The Total Environment published an article entitled “COVID-19: Lessons for the climate change emergency. Given the commonalities between the COVID-19 crisis and the impending global climate emergency, the paper discussed how the present crisis could be a unique opportunity to provide lessons on how to survive the global climate crisis.

In June 2020, the World Bank and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) released a report entitled “The Future of Work in Africa: Harnessing the Potential of Digital Technologies for All”, as a companion to the World Development Report 2019 on the Changing Nature of Work. The report discussed how global trends particularly the adoption of digital technology may change the nature of work in Sub-Saharan Africa by creating new opportunities and challenges. The report concluded that realization of these opportunities depends on how government policy makers and businesses make choices and investments that will pave the way for the next generation of African workers, inventors, and entrepreneurs to innovate and thrive.

The Global Food Security journal has published a paper examining propositions that resulted in state-led mechanization programs in Africa. The agricultural system in Africa is the least mechanized in the world, and there is a common view is that the introduction of mechanization has not achieved much progress and was even regarded as the “cause of unemployment”. On the other hand, in recent years agricultural mechanization has once again been included in the African development agenda. The authors found that most of the discourses on agricultural mechanization are “myths” with weak evidence, and research to support evidence-supported policies in considering sustainable and comprehensive agricultural mechanization.

In June 2020, Nature Food published an editorial article (Public-private roles beyond crop yields) on the division of roles between the public and private sectors in agricultural research and development (R&D) for sustainable food production. Funding for breeding programs in the public sector in recent years has threatened public-private sector collaboration aimed at improving agricultural productivity to support a population of around 10 billion by 2050. The private sector tends to focus on applied crop technology from a business perspective of focusing on the market and profit, while the public sector tends to concentrate on research with low profit margins despite high social returns. Decreasing public funding in food and agriculture R&D can affect the sustainability of agricultural systems. The public and private sectors must work together and tackle the food system from a long-term and social perspective.

On June 17, 2020, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) released a new UN Climate Change assessment showing that the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions of 18% compared to the 1990 goal levels under the Kyoto Protocol’s second phase can be fully achieved. However, this assessment applies only to 37 countries, and the continuous global increase in emissions indicates the need for more ambitious action. The year 2020 is critical because the Kyoto Protocol Parties will submit new targets or update efforts to reduce GHG emissions. If the current trend continues, the global average temperature could rise by more than 3 oC. Based on the Paris Agreement, the temperature rise should be kept as much as possible to 1.5 degrees C or below 2 degrees C.