Currently there are nearly one billion hungry people and 60 percent of chronically hungry are women and girls. Children and women’s under-nutrition is the underlying cause of around 2.5 million deaths yearly and, in developing countries, one third of children under five are stunted and will never reach their full potential. Climate change acts as a multiplier of food and nutrition insecurity making it harder to secure the rights of the poor.

The Irish Government and the Mary Robinson Foundation Climate Justice in partnership with the World Food Programme and other groups have organized a Conference on “Hunger, Nutrition and Climate Justice: A New Dialogue on Putting People at the Heart of Global Development”. The conference aimed to open a dialogue on these challenges and to encourage innovative thinking and solutions to addressing hunger, nutrition and climate justice, in the context of the new international development agenda.

Former Vice President Al Gore was at the Conference and said that “giving a voice to grassroots is a wonderful contribution to this debate… climate justice is the right focus for this conversation. We have to make our stand. We have to stand for climate justice.”

Cristina Tirado participated in the Conference of Hunger, Nutrition and Climate Justice. The Public Health Institutes’s document Enhancing Women’s Leadership to address the challenges of climate to nutrition security and health was shared with Al Gore who said that he will certainly read it. Al, we are looking for your feedback!