In advance of the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) to be held on September 23, 2021, Professor von Braun, Chair of the UNFSS Scientific Group, and his colleagues have published an article in Nature that proposes seven priorities for building a sustainable, just, and resilient food system.

2021 is the year in which food systems transformation as a global agenda has attracted special attention with the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit and the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit. With these opportunities in mind, the Advisory Board for Promoting Science and Technology Diplomacy to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan compiled the recommendation, “Planetary health: STI for food systems transformation”.    

The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is held every year to discuss the framework for international cooperation in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which are considered to be the cause of the climate change problem. The Global Research Alliance (GRA) was established as a framework to contribute to international cooperation in the field of research related to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and the response to climate change. In order to enhance the presence of Japan's research capabilities in the field of livestock production, a domestic network meeting is scheduled to be held online on September 16, 2021, bringing together relevant government departments and domestic researchers in the field to share the current situation and formulate future policies.

Trees determine the distribution and composition of forests and are important components of biodiversity and carbon sinks. A research project called the Global Tree Assessment compiled information on the risk of extinction for 58,497 tree species worldwide, and reported that about a third of the world's tree species are threatened with extinction. Threats to trees include deforestation, loss of habitat, overfishing for timber, and the spread of invasive alien and diseases.

In October 2020, the Japanese government declared its intention to decarbonize the country by 2050, and the way we deal with climate change is about to change the way we live, with many news reports on the subject about it. On the other hand, there is a major concern that the words used by climate change experts are often unfamiliar to the general public. A study conducted by the University of Southern California in coordination with the United Nations Foundation found that the terms used by researchers to describe climate change are too complex, and that in order to gain widespread support for action, it is necessary to communicate the climate crisis in a more understandable way, using everyday language that the general public can easily understand.

As countries around the world work to develop policies to address climate change, guidance on the economic valuation of greenhouse gas emissions will be important in determining the scale of climate change action. In the August 20 issue of Science on the social cost of carbon (SCC) for climate policy, Joseph E. Aldy of Harvard University and colleagues argue that climate change measures should explicitly incorporate the benefits of avoiding climate change damage.

JIRCAS, in collaboration with the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), the University of Miyazaki, and Can Tho University in Vietnam, conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of separated rice and beef production systems and an integrated system in the Mekong Delta. It was found that the rice-beef-biogas can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption, and also reduce the potential for eutrophication.

Tropical forests are known to be hotspots of tree diversity on earth, and it is known that the species found vary greatly depending on soil, elevation, and other factors. However, the morphology and function of tree species that would appear in which environment has not been well understood. Research conducted at Mount Kinabalu (4,095 m above sea level) in Borneo, the highest mountain in Southeast Asia, with the University of Sabah, Malaysia, suggests that trees maximize the period of time during which they can photosynthesize in response to multiple environmental stresses such as low temperature, high humidity, and strong winds at high altitudes by developing robust leaves. For this research, Dr. Kawai received the 25th Kira Award of the Japan Society of Tropical Ecology.

In recent years, damage to crops caused by transboundary insect pests has been increasing. In order to control the damage caused by transboundary pests, it is necessary to establish an international cooperative system that includes developing regions. The “Transboundary pest management” project aims to develop environment-friendly control technologies for transboundary pests, which have become a major problem worldwide, in collaboration with research institutes located in countries where transboundary pests occur. In addition, we will present economic evaluation models that will serve as a guideline for the development of efficient integrated pest management technologies in preparation for the emergence of new transboundary pests.