A report from OIA and the Environmental Change Institute, 'Access to Food in a Changing Climate', examines the potential impact of future climate change for the food security of vulnerable groups in the UK.
The study has been funded through the Adapting to Climate Change Strategic Evidence Fund, developed to support research using UK Climate Impact Programme (UKCIP) outputs. The Global Environmental Change and Food Security (GECAFS) framework, integrating socioeconomic and global environmental change drivers to understand future changes in food security, was used. This framework understands vulnerability as a multi-faceted phenomenon, with individuals becoming vulnerable as a result of exposure, high sensitivity and poor adaptive and coping strategies.
The following questions were addressed:
• What is the likelihood of changes in vulnerable groups’ access to food in a changing climate?
• Are these vulnerable groups more likely to live in areas disproportionately affected by [the
direct physical effects of] climate change?
In order to set parameters on this research three key vulnerable groups were identified, allowing for
different elements of vulnerability to be explored. These groups were: the over 85s, the income
deprived, and the disabled and health deprived.
