The world is turning itself inside out over climate change, despite there being challenges as important and more immediate that also need attention. A UN summit that began in Rome yesterday aims to tackle head-on one of the most pressing of them - hunger. One in six people does not have enough to eat and a child dies from malnutrition every six seconds. Yet leaders of the wealthy nations best placed to help put food on tables were conspicuous by their absence.
Of the leaders of the Group of Eight most industrialised nations, only Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was present. US President Barack Obama can be excused as the summit coincides with his visit to East Asia. But where were their counterparts from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Russia? Time and again they have pledged to stump up the funding and technology to feed the world, yet the hunger continues. That they have not even shown up this time speaks volumes about their determination and commitment.
Climate change, whose impact is a matter of computer models and guesswork, is being given far greater attention. Hunger is a here-and-now problem with clearly definable reach and numbers. The summit host, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, says US$44 billion a year will provide the agricultural aid that will help the needy feed themselves. The world is grappling with how to tackle climate change. Not so hunger, malaria, water shortages and myriad other maladies, where we know that adequate targeted funding and know-how can make a huge difference. China is among the countries making great inroads; there are one-third fewer hungry Chinese now than in 1992.
The Rome summit is the third of its kind in the past seven years. Targets to reduce the number of malnourished in countries that lack the ability to fight hunger are not being met. A rising global population means the problem will only get worse. People will continue to needlessly die while rich nations continue to show a lack of interest.