**3.1 Food access and climate change**

The earth's climate is changing, and this change has influenced people and the environment. Influences such as population growth, migration, need for water, shelter, and livelihood have a major influence on changing the earth's equilibrium. That leads to changes in the environment such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, habitat loss, desertification, and scarcity [1]. Most of these changes are made by humans to urbanize their cities. Regarding man-made activities, there is evidence that burning fossil fuels and land use changes made cumulative effects on these events. As defined by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer, the era when human activities affect the earth, and the environment is the Anthropocene Epoch [1]. The most obvious sign of this era is climate change. These climate changes are caused by human activities on natural elements such as the increase of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, carbon dioxide, and methane. Carbon dioxide has been increasing from 284 ppm in 1832 to 397 ppm in 2013 [3]. Methane is a strong gas and increased from 340 ppm in 1980 to more than 420 ppm in 2022. It is about the changes in the atmospheric temperature that influences more changes. This greenhouse gas (GHG) emission increases and changes to land use are the main cause of climate change [15]. Earth temperature has been increasing since the nineteenth century. Since the 1850s, the temperature increased by 0.8°C according to documented temperature increases in oceans and lands [3]. The temperature is expected to increase by 1.8°C which is higher than in previous centuries. More recently, a report by the National Center For Environmental Information, NOAA, illustrated the temperature for more than 143 years from 1880 to 2022 [26]. The monitoring of temperature in

March over the years found that this year's temperature is 0.95°C (1.71°F) above the twenty-first century average (March 2022).

Climate change effects are direct and indirect and could affect some places more severely than others [27]. Climate change influences food security in six aspects [3]: 1—The impact is greater in high hunger countries; 2—it will increase undernutrition and malnutrition; 3—it will increase food inequalities on all scales global and local; 4—people in vulnerable conditions to extreme weather events will suffer more because of the severity of climate change; 5—the climate change effects will continue affecting the earth in the next 20–30 years because of the past carbon emissions; and 6—severe weather events will increase in severity and its future is unpredictable.

As climate change is becoming more severe sources such as clean water, air quality, low pathogen exposure, and the ability to raise, gather, harvest, and gather crops, animals, seafood, and wild food will be threatened [28]. These threats to food availability will negatively affect all human nutritional status [28]. Climate change affects food security by affecting crop production, storage, and transportation [1]. It influences the food supply chain, demand, and access on a local scale.

Since the 1990s, decreases in food security, commodity prices increase, and the decrease in per capita cultivated are documented [29]. Climate changes affect the availability of food items specifically fruit and vegetables, and it is predicted to be between 5 million to 175 million by 2080 [2]. For instance, 30% of farmers in developing countries are food-insecure [30]. In tropical and worming environments, climate change would severely increase rainfall, and it will cause pests and disease to the crops and livestock [31]. Regions such as African Sahara are influenced by biophysical, political, and socioeconomic variables, which make them more vulnerable to climate change [32]. One of the climate change impacts is the loss of cropland, and the sub-Sahara in Africa is expected to lose more than 10–20% of its crop and West Africa by 20–50% by 2050 [32]. These changes and droughts influence rain pattern changes, which has been estimated that East Africa is likely to become wetter and Southeast Africa to become drier [32]. The complexity of environmental tension with lack of food access raises the stress on vulnerable communities.

Based on climate forecasting models for the next 100 years, the land temperature will be increasing and result in lowering the crop yield in dry regions and increasing the short-term yield in high-latitude regions. These changes have a consequence on providing food, water, and shelter for humans. These affect climate changes such as temperature increases and changes in rainfall. Climate changes may influence hunger, but they could be controlled by feeding people during crises and investigations into new agricultural techniques that increase yields. Moreover, monitoring and predicting systems can be used by the government for early warning [30]. Insurance cover crops depend on remote sensing to cover the needed crops in case of drought years [30]. Investment in modified seed has more ability to survive [30]. More local policies protect local production [30]. The temperature increases are likely to impact crops negatively in the next two decades and affect corn wheat, rice, and other primary crops [30]. One of the expected effects of climate change in Mali is a hunger increase from 34% to 44% [33].
