Climate emergencies are nutrition emergencies. This new report examines the climate change-nutrition discourse and the central role of micronutrients. The impacts and disruptions associated with climate change—including the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, greater land degradation, more extreme weather, and rising sea levels, to name just a few—are jeopardizing people’s micronutrient status. In addition, at the same time that climatic shocks and crises threaten individuals’ nutrition security, climate change-induced rises in the prevalence of waterborne diseases may increase human micronutrient needs. Climate change demands we build resilience – and one crucial component of that is micronutrient resilience.

In an era of overlapping crises, women worldwide are facing a crisis of micronutrient malnutrition. Empowering women while investing in their improved nutrition will have a multiplying effect on the resilience of women, their families and communities. This white paper advocates for mainstreaming women’s empowerment and equality into all nutrition programming, both direct and indirect, and addressing women’s nutrition at all life stages, regardless of their reproductive choices through health, education, and social protection systems.