A coalition of donors, aid institutions and philanthropy promised today to invest more than US $650 million in the CGIAR System Organization to help 300 million smallholder farmers in developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change, which already are eroding crop and livestock production in places like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The investments from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the European Commission, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany are part of a broader commitment of more than US $790 million to address the impact of climate change on food and agriculture. The investments announced today at the United Nations Climate Action Summit are a response to a call to action from the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA) urging world leaders to mount a “massive effort to adapt to conditions that are now inevitable.”